Department of Epidemiological Sciences, Animal and Plant Health Agency, Addlestone, Surrey, UK.
Bacteriology Department, Animal and Plant Health Agency, Addlestone, Surrey, UK.
Vet Rec. 2021 Aug;189(4):e246. doi: 10.1002/vetr.246. Epub 2021 Apr 19.
Cryptosporidium can be an important human health risk, predominantly causing gastroenteritis. With increased public attendance at commercial and open farms, there is a need to improve the understanding of Cryptosporidium risk on premises that are visited by the public.
This study was designed to explore the animal premises-related and animal sampling-related data routinely collected, during 2009-2019, from human outbreak sampling investigations where animal contact was suggested as a source of Cryptosporidium.
The results from the 23 eligible investigations indicated a diverse population of animals on the premises and that sheep and cattle, including bottle feeding, were frequently identified as contacts made by the human cases on these premises. Faecal samples from cattle and sheep were found to have a relatively high proportion of positive results and frequently matched the Cryptosporidium species and strain identified in the outbreak cases. Generally, investigations where no positive samples were detected had fewer samples collected.
The findings support the advice to prioritise sampling of groups of animals which have been identified as being contacted by the human cases, and to use statistically valid sample size calculations for the number of samples to collect at each investigation.
隐孢子虫可能对人类健康构成重大威胁，主要引起肠胃炎。随着公众越来越多地参加商业和开放农场，有必要提高对公众参观场所中隐孢子虫风险的认识。
本研究旨在探索 2009 年至 2019 年期间，从人类暴发抽样调查中收集的与动物相关的场所和与动物相关的采样数据，这些调查提示动物接触是隐孢子虫的来源。
23 项合格调查的结果表明，动物的种类繁多，羊和牛，包括奶瓶喂养，经常被确定为人类在这些场所接触的动物。从牛和羊粪便中采集的样本显示出相对较高的阳性结果比例，并且经常与暴发病例中鉴定出的隐孢子虫种类和菌株相匹配。通常情况下，未检测到阳性样本的调查收集的样本较少。
这些发现支持了优先对被确定与人类病例接触的动物群体进行采样的建议，并支持使用统计学有效样本量计算在每次调查中采集的样本数量。
