Cryptosporidiosis is an important disease in young farm animals causing
diarrhea and consequently leading to economic losses. In addition, the disease
is zoonotic transmitted to humans. Accurate and fast diagnosis is needed for
improvement hygienic measures as there is no treatment for cryptosporidiosis.
Recently, commercial immunochromatographic (IC) assays have appeared in
spite of there are some advantages over the conventional methods e.g. like
floatation concentration and Ziehl-Neelsen staining (ZN). This study was
conducted to compare between immunochromatographic (IC) assay and ZN,
which is widely used routinely in laboratories for diagnosis of
Cryptosporidium infection. The Study revealed that IC was a more sensitive
detection method than ZN staining. In a comparison of all 1209 fecal samples
collected, Cryptosporidium was detected in 12% by IC versus 6.38% by ZN
staining (Fishur exact test, P<0.000). Even in each animal species, the number
of positive samples detected by IC was higher than those detected by Zn. IC is
found to be easy to be performed and its results were easy to be interpret. The
overall prevalence of Cryptosporidium infection (16.3%) higher than that of
other enteropathogens: rotavirus (2%), coronavirus (0.7%) and E. coli k99
(7.4%). This finding indicated that Cryptosporidium is an important disease agent
among farm animals in Kuwait, particularly in cattle and small ruminants.