Tissue atlas of Cryptosporidium parvum infection reveals contrasts between the natural neonatal calf model and laboratory mouse models

Cryptosporidium is an apicomplexan parasite that causes diarrhoeal disease. The species C. parvum is zoonotic and causes significant morbidity and mortality for both humans and farm animals; most commonly, calves and lambs. A One Health approach that integrates human, animal and environmental health perspectives is required to tackle this disease. Current treatments are limited and ineffective, meaning there is an urgent need to develop new anti-cryptosporidials both for human and animal health. The neonatal calf model is a natural model of infection employed as a tool for drug discovery or generating parasite material. However, the model is seldom utilised to investigate host-parasite interaction. Fundamental information about this model, including the location of the parasite in the gut, is lacking. It is also unclear how the more commonly utilised immunocompromised mouse models of cryptosporidiosis compare to the neonatal calf model. To address this, we established an acute, moderate experimental C. parvum infection in neonatal calves. Using transgenic parasites, we created a tissue atlas of infection for neonatal calf gut and immunocompromised mouse models and mapped and quantified infection to draw robust comparisons between models. Cryptosporidium infection was observed at high levels throughout the neonatal calf gastrointestinal tract and was not limited to the ileal-cecal junction, as previously suggested. This infection pattern is most similar to the acute cryptosporidiosis mouse model, interferon-gamma knockout mice (IFNγKO). Infection with transgenic parasites allowed us to perform in vivo and ex vivo tissue imaging of the chronic cryptosporidiosis mouse model, NOD SCID Gamma KO (NSG) mice. In contrast, in NSG mice infection is low in the small intestines and highest in the caecum and colon. Understanding the true distribution of infection in the gastrointestinal tract of these three key animal models provides new perspectives on how to interpret and design drug efficacy studies and provides new insight into host-pathogen interaction.