The distinctive metabolic features of this parasite from other apicomplexan organisms, e.g. no plastid-derived apicoplast and the absence of the citrate cycle and cytochrome-based respiratory chain (Ryan & Hijjawi, 2015), confer several limitations for the identification of targets necessary for the development of anticryptosporidial drugs. However, the core metabolic pathways, e.g. energy metabolism and lipid synthesis are still present and exhibit high level of divergence from the mammalian host, thus presenting an opportunity to identify new drug targets that promise effective and selective treatment (Chellan et al. 2017).