The Prevalence of Giardia duodenalis in Dairy Calves and Cattle in Firozabad City, Iran

Background aim: Giardia duodenalis is a waterborne and foodborne zoonotic protozoan, which infects the gastrointestinal tract of humans and animals, causing infection in cattle with enteric manifestations accompanied by diarrhea.Giardiasis causes immense economic losses, especially in meat-and milk-oriented cattle farms, attributed to high treatment costs, calf mortality, and decreased weight gain in animals.The present study focuses on determining the prevalence of bovine G. duodenalis infection in cattle in Firozabad city, taking into account the favorable conditions of husbandries of this city in Fars Province, Iran.Material and Methods: A total of 451 fresh fecal samples were randomly collected from six dairy farms in Firozabad city, and categorized based on age and type of farm.The samples were subjected to macroscopic observation and the fecal flotation method.The obtained results were statistically analyzed using SPSS software and the Chi-square test (X2).Results: Sixty-two samples were positive and the overall prevalence for G. duodenalis was 13.7%.In terms of age, the number of infected preweaned calves, postweaned calves, young cattle and adult cattle was (15.2%), (16%), (10.1%) and (14.6%) respectively.In terms of the type of keeping, 4 samples (3.5%) were positive in semi-industrial farms and 28 samples (8.3%) were positive in traditional farms. Conclusion:The statistical analysis shows there was a significant association of G. duodenalis infection with the age of animals (calves show more infection than cattle) (p<0.05) and a significant relationship between the breeding type and the percentage of disease was observed (traditional farms have more positive samples than semi-industrial farms) (p<0.05).