Occurrence and First Molecular Characterization of Cryptosporidium felis in a Cat in Turkey

Abstract

Cryptosporidium species are highly prevalent and significant zoonotic protozoan parasites that cause severe diarrhea in many hosts. To date, cryptosporidiosis has been molecularly reported from humans and different animal hosts in Turkey. The aim of this case report is to reveal the molecular characterization based on small subunit (SSU) rRNA gene sequence of Cryptosporidium oocysts that were microscopically found in a three-month age female cat with severe diarrhea. SSU rRNA gene of Cryptosporidium was amplified for sequence and phylogenetic analyses. According to sequence analysis, Cryptosporidium spp. oocysts were characterized as C. felis (isolate name: ANK_1; accession number: MN394123). ANK_1 isolate showed a range from 99.1% to 100% identity with the most of C. felis sequences available in GenBank. However, it also exhibited high genetic distance (1.5-4.3%) with some of C. felis sequences. The intraspecific genetic differences among all SSU rRNA sequences of C. felis isolates included in the data set were determined ranged from 0.0% to 6.9%. As a conclusion, we provided the first microscopic and molecular evidence of the occurrence of C. felis in a house cat in Turkey. Although C. felis has a relatively low zoonotic risk to public health when compared with C. parvum, infected cats should not be neglected for zoonotic transmission due to close relationships between cats and humans.