Prevalence and diversity of Cryptosporidium infecting fur animals

The object of this thesis was evaluation of occurrence and prevalence of Cryptosporidium infection in fur animals, mainly American mink, fox and chinchilla. A total 370 individual specimens originated from mink (n = 340), fox (n = 18) and chinchilla (n = 12) were collected. While microscopy examination did not proved any presence of Cryptosporidium oocyst in fecal samples, molecular tolls based on amplification of small ribosomal subunit and 60 kDa glycoprotein of Cryptosporidium revealed three positive samples in minks. Following phylogeny analyses of both loci showed presence of C. ubiquitum of the XIIa1 family subtype in all positive samples. The XIIa1 family subtype was detected in Carnivores for the first time. No correlation between Cryptosporidium infection and presence of diarrhea was observed in this thesis