Outbreak of cryptosporidiosis in dairy goats in Brazil

An outbreak of cryptosporidiosis is reported among 22 suckling kids aged one to two weeks which were maintained for experimental purposes at the veterinary hospital of the University of Minas Gerais. They were divided into three groups. Group A consisted of 10 animals with acute diarrhoea; initially their faeces were pasty but later they were excreted in watery streams. The animals were treated with gentamicin and fluid therapy but did not respond to treatment and died within a week. Postmortem examination revealed liquid intestinal contents, enlarged mesenteric lymph nodes, and hyperaemia and haemorrhage were observed in the final third of the small intestine of some of the animals. Of the 10 animals in group B four had diarrhoea and six were normal; postmortem examination showed that the macroscopic changes were similar to those observed in group A. Three of the animals with diarrhoea had a massive Cryptosporidium infection in the final third of the small intestine, caecum and colon. Four of the six normal animals had a moderate Cryptosporidium infection in the same organs. The two kids in group C died; they had pasty faeces, and there were many Cryptosporidium oocysts in the faecal smears.