Feline Cryptosporidiosis

Feline Cryptosporidiosis

<p align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">No matter what species is involved, </span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Cryptosporidium</i></span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>felis</i></span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> or </span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Cryptosporidium</i></span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>parvum</i></span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">, cats do present with severe disease due to infection with this pathogen. A typical presentation of a cat with disease is one that has an underlying immunosuppressive disorder such as a feline leukemia virus infection (Monticello et al., 1987). However, there are cases where cats develop severe disease and persistent cryptosporidiosis where there is no apparent underlying condition (Lappin et al., 1997). Also, the recent development of serological tests that detect antibody in the blood of cats that have been infected would suggest that somewhere around 15% of cats throughout the United States have been or are currently infected with </span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Cryptosporidium</i></span></span></span><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> (Lappin et al, 1997; McReynolds et al., 1999).</span></span></span></p> <p align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The cat that presents with cryptosporidiosis will be having recurring bouts of diarrhea. </span></span></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The disease caused by </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Cryptosporidium</i></span></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> infection is a water-losing diarrhea caused by the development of the parasites within the epithelial cells of the mucosa. Histologically, infection causes a blunting of the intestinal villus and crypt hyperplasia that is accompanied by an intense neutrophilic response (Tzipori et al., 1983). In AIDS patients with cryptosporidiosis, it has been found that net water, sodium, and chloride movement was the same as that in healthy controls (Kelly et al., 1996). From this work, these authors concluded that the diarrhea may be due to the secretion of electrolytes and water efflux distally to the site of infection or as to some yet undefined feature or the infection. Using monolayers of polarized colonic epithelial cells and the experimental infection of these cells with </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Cryptosporidium</i></span></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>parvum</i></span></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">, it has been shown that there is an increased macromolecular permeability of the monolayer, and it was felt that disruption of the epithelial cell barrier play a role in the observed diarrhea (Adams et al., 1994). Additional work using the cell monolayer system has shown rather conclusively that the infection of the epithelial cells will ultimately result in significant changes in the host cell permeability and the permeability of the entire monolayer (Griffiths et al., 1994). Also, the infection will result in the death of the infected cells.</span></span></p> <p align="JUSTIFY"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Treatment of cats that are undergoing infection is a difficult as treatment is in humans. The basic therapy is the relief of symptoms and increased fluids. Paromomycin has been used to treat cats with some success (Barr et al., 1994); but this therapy is not without potential complications that can include renal failure (Gookin et al., 1999).</span></span></p> <p align="JUSTIFY"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Cats have on occasion been experimentally infected with </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Cryptosporidium</i></span></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> isolated from calves and considered to be </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Cryptosporidium</i></span></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>parvum </i></span></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">(Current et al., 1983; Pavleski, 1983), but cats seem rather refractory to such infections. In a trial we performed at Cornell where two virus-free kittens were each fed 10 million oocysts, only a very few oocysts were shed in the feces of these cats, and they never developed signs of infection. Dogs have until very recently been considered to be infected with the same species, </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Cryptosporidium</i></span></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>parvum</i></span></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">, that occurs in calves and humans. Dogs can be experimentally infected with oocysts from calves, but the number of oocysts shed by these dogs appears to remain relatively low (Lloyd and Smith, 1997). Also, recent evidence tends to indicate that dogs may have their own phenotype as determined by DNA sequencing methods (Pieniazek et al., 1999). </span></span></p> <p align="JUSTIFY"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The potential transmission of </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Cryptosporidium</i></span></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> between cats and people is currently pretty much undefined. There have been reports linking feline cryptosporidiosis to human infection (Egger et al., 1990; Pieniazek et al., 1999). At the same time it would seem that many of the human isolates are neither from cats nor cattle, rather the infections are acquired from other humans. There have also been studies that have shown that pet ownership is not a risk factor for HIV-infected individuals (Glaser et al., 1998). </span></span></p> <h1 class="western">REFERENCES</h1> <h1 class="western"></h1> <p align="JUSTIFY"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Adams RB, Guerrant RL, Zu SX, Fang GD, Roche JK. (1994) A</span><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Cryptosporidium</i></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>parvum</i></span><span style="font-size: medium;"> infection of intestinal epithelium: morphologic and functional studies in an in vitro model. J Inf Dis 169: 170-177.</span></span></p> <h1 class="western">Barr SC, Jamrosz GF, Hornbuckle WE, Bowman DD, Fayer R. 1994. use of paromomycin gor treatment of cryptosporidiosis in a cat. JAVMA 205:1742-1743.</h1> <p align="JUSTIFY"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Current WL, Reese NC, Ernst JV, Bailey WS, Heyman MB, Weinstein WM. 1983. AHuman cryptosporidiosis in immunocompetent and immunodeficient persons. Studies of an outbreak and experimental transmission. N Engl J Med 308:1252-1257.</span></span></p> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Egger M, Nguyen XM, Schaad UB, Krech T. 1990. Intestinal cryptosporidiosis acquired from a cat. Infection 18:177-178.</span></span> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Glaser CA, Safrin S, Reingold A, Newman TB. 1998. Association between Cryptosporidium infection and animal exposures in HIV-infected individuals. J AIDS Human Retroivirol 17:79-82.</span></span> <p align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Gookin JL, Riviere JE, Gilger BC, Papich MG. 1999. Acute renal failure in four cats treated with paromomycin. JAVMA 215:1821-1823.</span></span></span></p> <p align="JUSTIFY"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Griffiths JK, Moore R, Dooley S, Keusch GT, Tzipori S. (1994) A</span><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Cryptosporidium</i></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>parvum</i></span><span style="font-size: medium;"> infection of Caco-2 cell monolayers induces an apical monolayer defect, selectively increases transmonolayer permeability, and causes epithelial cell death. Inf Immun 62:4506-4514.</span></span></p> <p align="JUSTIFY"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Kelly P, Thillainayagam AV, Smithson J, Hunt JB, Forbes A, Gazzard BG, Farthing MJG. (1996) AJejunal water and electrolyte transport in human cryptosporidiosis. Digest Dis Sci 41:2095 2099.</span></span></p> <p align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Lappin MR, Dowers K, Taton Allen, G, Cheney J. 1997. Cryptsoporidiosis and inflammatory bowel disease in a cat. Feline Pract 25:10-13.</span></span></span></p> <p align="JUSTIFY"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Lloyd S, Smith J. (1997) APattern of </span><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Cryptosporidium</i></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>parvum</i></span><span style="font-size: medium;"> oocyst excretion by experimentally infected dogs. Int J Parastiol 27:799-801.</span></span></p> <p align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">McReynolds CA, Lappin MR, Ungar B, McReynolds LM, Bruns C, Spilker MM, Thrall MA, Reif JS. 1999. Regional seroprevalence of Cryptosporidiium parvum-specific IgG of cats in the United States. Vet Parasitol 80:187-195.</span></span></span></p> <p align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Monticello TM, Levy MG, Bunch SE, Fairleyt RA. 1987. Cryptosporidiosis in a feline leukemia virus-positive cat. JAVMA 191:705-706.</span></span></span></p> <p align="JUSTIFY"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Pavlasek I. (1983) AExperimental infection of cat and chicken with </span><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Cryptosporidium</i></span><span style="font-size: medium;"> sp. oocysts isolated from a calf. Folia Parasitol 30:121-122.</span></span></p> <p align="JUSTIFY"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Pieniazek NJ, Bornay Llinares FJ, Slemenda SB, da Silva AJ, Moura INS, Arrowood MJ, Ditrich O, Addiss DG (1999) ANew </span><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Cryptosporidium</i></span><span style="font-size: medium;"> genotypes in HIV infected persons. Emerg Inf Dis 5:444-449.</span></span></p> <p align="JUSTIFY"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Tzipori S, Smith M, Halpin C, Angus KW, Sherwood D, Campbell I. (1983) AExperimental cryptosporidiosis in calves: clinical manifestations and pathological findings. Vet Rec 112:116-120.</span></span></p> <p align="JUSTIFY"></p>