RANDOMLY AMPLIFIED POLYMORPHIC DNA PCR ANALYSIS OF BOVINE CRYPTOSPORIDIUM-PARVUM STRAINS ISOLATED FROM THE WATERSHED OF THE RED RIVER OF THE NORTH

Cryptosporidium parvum is a protozoan parasite that causes the disease cryptosporidiosis in a variety of mammals, including neonatal calves and humans. Millions of oocysts are shed during acute cryptosporidiosi s, and zoonotic transmission is inferred, though not proven, to be a g eneral phenomenon. Very little is known about the degree of strain var iation exhibited by bovine and human isolates, though such knowledge w ould enable the amount of bovine-to-human transmission to be more prec isely analyzed, This research was initiated to determine whether varia tions exist among bovine strains isolated from a localized geographic area, the watershed of the Red River of the North. Sixteen strains mer e isolated and compared to each other and to two human and two calf st rains from Australia by randomly amplified polymorphic DNA PCR. A stat istical analysis of the data indicated that the isolates belonged to f our different groups of strains.