Concurrent Cryptosporidium and Candida infections in a buffalo calf (Bubalus bubalis)

Cryptosporidiosis and candidiasis are opportunistic infections of neonates. An investigation was contemplated to study the enteric lesions associated with concurrent infections by the pathogens in a male bubaline calf, aged 8 weeks, which died on March 23, 2010. The gross lesions were comprised of hyperplastic changes and erosion of the microvillus surface of the enteric epithelium. The histological sections revealed invasion of the mucosal cells by two types (Cryptosporidium spp. and Candida spp.) of pathogens. The deeper layers of the intestine did not reveal appreciable architectural changes, except for the presence of inflammatory cellular elements in the lamina propria. The sections stained with Ziehl–Neelsen revealed bright red, oval to spherical bodies (3–5 μm), and those stained with Gomori's Methanamine silver nitrate revealed black-colored fungal spores and pseudohyphae. Based on morphological and in vitro cultural characteristics, the pathogens were identified as Cryptosporidium spp. and Candida spp., respectively. The lesions seem to be consequential events to synergistic invasion of the enterocytes by the pathogens. Complex changes in the microenvironment of the gut, incidental to in situ release of hydrolytic enzymes, toxins, and products of host–parasite interaction liberated at the site of infection by the pathogens, have been reported and discussed.