Prevalence and Risk Factors Associated with Cryptosporidiosis among Calves in the North Region of Cameroon

Cattle rearing, one of the main activities of the people of the North Cameroon Region, is limited by cryptosporidiosis, gastrointestinal disease of calves. A study was carried out in 458 calves from the North Cameroon Region during the period August 2022 to January 2023 to determine its prevalence, distribution, and risk factors. A total of 217/458 faecal samples were positive, giving an overall prevalence of 44.56%. This prevalence was significantly higher in the rainy season (59.18%) (p<0.001), and on diarrheic animals (51.44%) (p<0.001). The prevalence of infection is significantly higher in calves aged < 3 (69.28%) (p<0.001), on calves of semi-intensive (55.15%) and intensive (31.25%) farms (p<0.001). The prevalence varied significantly between 35.51% in Mayo-Rey and 53.84% in Mayo-Louti (p<0.05), and between 37.68% in calves from NEC= [3; 5] and 64.28% in those from BCN= [0; 1] (p<0.01). According to risk of infection, calves aged <3 months and 3-6 months were respectively 11.69 and 3.19 at risk to be infected (OR=11.694; p<0.001; OR=3.193; p<0.001 respectively). At the same time, the risk of infection is higher on diarrheic calves (OR=4.43; p<0.001), in the rainy season (OR=4.298; p<0.001), on calves of BCN= [0; 1] (OR=2.76; p<0.05), in the intensive system (OR=0.499; p<0.05). Cryptosporidiosis is present and very distributed among calves of this region. The disease could be a major animal and human health problem considering his impact and the zoonotic oocyst capacity of transmission.