Research Article - Journal of Parasitic Diseases: Diagnosis and Therapy (2018) Volume 3, Issue 1

Sedimentation technique (Foreyt, 2005) for quantitative diagnosis of Fasciola hepatica eggs.

Fasciola hepatica infection affects several animal species and is most often diagnosed in sheep and cattle. Fascioliasis presents nonspecific symptoms; therefore, laboratory diagnosis is required, with faecal examinations being the most frequently used as they are inexpensive, can be performed more easily and provide important epidemiological information. The objective of this study was to quantitatively compare the four sieves technique proposed by Girão and Ueno (1985) and the faecal sedimentation technique described by Foreyt (2005) in samples of cattle faeces artificially infected with F. hepatica eggs. Faecal contaminations were performed with 10, 25 or 50 eggs per gram for mild, moderate or heavy infection, respectively. Ten replicates were performed for each degree of infection for each technique, totalling 60 samples. The results showed that the faecal sedimentation technique was superior to the four sieves technique for quantitative diagnosis of F. hepatica. The percentage recovery of eggs was 68%, 59.36% and 65.88% using the sedimentation technique and 21%, 8.4% and 22.6% for the technique of Girão and Ueno (1985) in light, moderate and heavy infections, respectively. Additionally, the sedimentation technique described by Foreyt (2005) is cheaper to apply and easier to use.

Author(s): Milena Batista Carneiro, Isabella Vilhena Freire Martins, Bárbara Rauta De Avelar, Fabio Barbour Scott

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