Natural infection of Cryptosporidium muris in ostriches (Struthio camelus)

- The overall prevalence of Cryptosporidium in ostriches was 10.2% (31/303).
- C. muris was first identified in ostriches.
- C. muris from ostriches could infect BALB/c mice and Mongolian gerbils.

A total of 303 fecal samples were collected from ostriches (Struthio camelus) and 31 samples (10.2%) were Cryptosporidium-positive upon microscopic analysis. The infection rate was 27.6% in ostriches aged 16-60 days, 1.2% in those aged 61-180 days, and 20.4% in those aged >10 years. The Cryptosporidium-positive isolates were genotyped with a restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis and DNA sequence analysis of the small subunit (SSU) rRNA gene. The 22 isolates from ostriches aged >10 years were identified as Cryptosporidium muris, whereas the nine isolates from ostriches <180 days were Cryptosporidium baileyi. Ten of the 22 C. muris isolates were analyzed based on the actin and HSP70 genes, and the results were identical to those observed for the SSU rRNA gene. Cross-transmission studies demonstrated that the C. muris isolate infected BALB/c mice and Mongolian gerbils, but did not infect chickens. C. muris isolated in this study appears to be host-adapted, consistent with a previous multilocus sequence typing analysis. Further studies are required to understand the prevalence and transmission of Cryptosporidium spp. in ostriches in different geographic areas.