Precision, repeatability and representative ability of faecal egg counts in Heterakis gallinarum infected chickens

This study investigated whether a precise and repeatable quantification of Heterakis gallinarum egg excretion, which considerably reflects the actual worm burdens, can be achieved based on collection of the daily total amount of faeces from chickens. Three-week-old birds (N=64) were infected with 20...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Veterinary parasitology 2011-12, Vol.183 (1-2), p.87-94
Main Authors: Daş, Gürbüz, Savaş, Türker, Kaufmann, Falko, Idris, Ahmad, Abel, Hansjörg, Gauly, Matthias
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Ascaridida - physiology
Ascaridida Infections - parasitology
Ascaridida Infections - veterinary
Chickens - parasitology
Faecal egg counts
Faeces
Feces - parasitology
Female
Heterakis gallinarum
Male
Models, Statistical
Nematode egg shedding
Ovum - growth & development
Parasite Egg Count - veterinary
Poultry Diseases - parasitology
Precision
Repeatability
Reproducibility of Results
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This study investigated whether a precise and repeatable quantification of Heterakis gallinarum egg excretion, which considerably reflects the actual worm burdens, can be achieved based on collection of the daily total amount of faeces from chickens. Three-week-old birds (N=64) were infected with 200 embryonated eggs of H. gallinarum, and placed into individual cages 3wk after infection for 5wk to collect daily faeces (N=2240). The total daily faeces was mixed and a randomly taken sample per bird was analyzed to estimate the numbers of eggs per gram of faeces (EPG) and total number of eggs excreted within 24h (EPD). A total of 235 daily faecal collections were randomly selected and further examined to determine between and within sample variations of EPG counts as a measure of precision. For this, two random faecal samples were taken from the daily produced faeces by a bird, and the EPG was determined for each of the samples (EPG1 and EPG2). The second faecal sample was analyzed once more to determine a parallel EPG2 count (EPG2a) of the suspended sample. Precision of an EPG count was defined as its relative closeness to the average of two EPG counts using a relative asymmetry index (IndexEPG). At an age of 11wk, i.e. 8wk p.i. the birds were slaughtered and their worm burdens were determined. There were no significant differences between EPG1 and EPG2 (P=0.764) nor between EPG2 and EPG2a (P=0.700), suggesting that the differences between or within the samples were not different from zero. Correlations between EPG counts, as between and within sample coherences, were r=0.85 and r=0.86, respectively. Precision of EPG counts, as measured by IndexEPG, was not influenced by consistency (P=0.870) and total amount of faeces (P=0.088). However, concentration of eggs in faeces (mean EPG) had a significant effect on the precision of the EPG counts (P
ISSN:0304-4017
1873-2550
DOI:10.1016/j.vetpar.2011.07.005