Cryptosporidium parvum is a common intestinal parasite which is associated with severe acute diarrhea in humans and animals. This work aimed to determine Cryptosporidium sp. in positive faecal samples by using polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Cryptosporidium oocysts were isolated from 10 out of 20 Egyptian stray dogs with diarrhoea. The zoonotic C. parvum was found to be present in two isolates which showed successful amplification of a specific DNA fragment at 550 bp with C. parvum outer wall protein (COWP) gene amplicon using two specific primers CRY-15 and CRY-9. This is the first investigation on the presence of C. parvum among Egyptian stray dogs and it has pointed to the existence of a genotype that may play an important role as a source of human and farm animal cryptosporidiosis.
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