Uses and limitations of faecal egg count for assessing worm burden in wild boars

Diana Gassó, Cales Feliu, David Ferrer, Gregorio Mentaberre, Encarna Casas-Díaz, Roser Velarde, Xavier Fernández-Aguilar, Andreu Colom-Cadena, Nora Navarro-Gonzalez, Jorge Ramón López-Olvera, Santiago Lavín, Pedro Fenández-Llario, Joaquim Segalés, Emmanuel Serrano

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

30 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

© 2015 Elsevier B.V. The most widely used technique to assess helminth infection in both domestic and wild mammals is the faecal egg count (FEC). Most efforts to test the reliability of FEC as a proxy for parasite load are in small ruminant studies and limited work has evaluated the use of FEC in pigs. The aim of this study was to explore whether FEC is a reliable indicator of helminth load, and to evaluate the effects of sample storage on FEC accuracy in 59 wild boars. Though FEC was useful for assessing most helminth infections (e.g., Metastrongylus spp., Ascaris suum, Trichuris suis), stomach nematodes were often missed. The accuracy of FEC decreased over time, and thus it is recommended that samples be processed within 5 days of collection.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)133-137
JournalVeterinary Parasitology
Volume209
Issue number1-2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2015

Keywords

  • Coprological analysis
  • McMaster egg counting
  • Sus scrofa

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