Environmental Load of Cryptosporidium parvum Oocysts from Cattle Manure in Feedlots from the Central and Western United States

• Published in: Journal of environmental quality 2006-01, Vol.35 (1), p.200-206
• Main Authors: Atwill, Edward R., Pereira, Maria Das Gracas C., Alonso, L. Herrera, Elmi, Cyrus, Epperson, William B., Smith, Robert, Riggs, Walter, Carpenter, Linda V., Dargatz, David A., Hoar, Bruce
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Agronomy; Agronomy. Soil science and plant productions; Animal Feed; Animals; Applied sciences; Arrivals; Biological and medical sciences; Bos taurus; Cattle; Cattle manure; Climate; Contamination; Copyrights; Cryptosporidium; Cryptosporidium parvum; Cryptosporidium parvum - isolation & purification; Deposition; Documents; Earth sciences; Earth, ocean, space; Engineering and environment geology. Geothermics; Environmental quality; Estimates; Exact sciences and technology; Factory farming; Feces; Feces - parasitology; Feedlots; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Genotype & phenotype; Management systems; Manure; Manures; Maria; Oocysts; Oocysts - isolation & purification; Pathogens; Pens; Pollution; Pollution, environment geology; Risk; Risk assessment; United States; Water pollution
• ISSN: 0047-2425; 1537-2537
• DOI: 10.2134/jeq2005.0099

ABSTRACT The first step in assessing the risk of water contamination by Cryptosporidium parvum oocysts from feedlot cattle (Bos taurus) production systems is to quantify the number of C. parvum oocysts present in the fecal material deposited by feedlot cattle. Our primary objective for this project was to estimate the daily environmental load of C. parvum oocysts in fecal material deposited by feedlot cattle from across the central and western USA. Our secondary goal was to genotype isolates of C. parvum from feedlot cattle to help facilitate proper identification of mammalian sources of waterborne C. parvum Based on 5274 fecal samples from 22 feedlots in seven states (California, Washington, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, Nebraska, and South Dakota), we estimated a point prevalence of C. parvum of 0.99 to 1.08% in fecal material from feedlot pens from a wide range of climates and a diverse range of feedlot management systems. On average, fresh fecal material from throughout feedlot systems (recent arrivals to nearing slaughter) contained about 1.3 to 3.6 oocysts/g feces, which roughly translates to about 2.8 × 104 to 1.4 × 105 oocysts/animal perday.