Confirmation of the prophylactic value of paromomycin in a natural outbreak of caprine cryptosporidiosis.

摘要

Goats born in an enclosed kidding pen in which 90 goats had died of cryptosporidiosis over 2 months, were given paromomycin (100 mg/kg by mouth) for 21 days from birth (45 goats) or kept as untreated controls (12 goats). None of the 43 goats given paromomycin developed clinical signs of enteritis. All 12 untreated controls developed diarrhoea of varying duration and intensity; 3 died of severe catarrhal enteritis involving the distal third of the small intestine. Histopathological examination of these goats identified cryptosporidia lining the villi with widespread villous atrophy, fusion and blunting. Transmission electron microscopy confirmed the presence of multiple cryptosporidia lining the apical villi. At day 22, all control goats had positive faecal samples, but none of the faecal samples from treated goats contained oocytes.