title: Reliability of coprological diagnosis of Anoplocephala perfoliata infection.
abstract: Three coprological methods were tested to establish the reliability of in vivo diagnosis of Anoplocephala perfoliata. A total of 107 faecal samples were analyzed, and the presence of tapeworms were confirmed postmortem in 24 animals with burdens that ranged from 1 to 248 worms; most of them (71%) with less than 100 parasites. Best results were obtained with a combination of two sedimentation/flotation methods, detecting only half the parasitized animals (54% sensitivity). No relationship could be established between tapeworm burden and egg detection, but results indicate that coprological methods have a lower likelihood of diagnosing cestode infection when horses have less than 100 tapeworms.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Patología Animal I (Sanidad Animal), Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain. ameana@eucmax.sim.ucm.es
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Meana
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Luzon
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Corchero
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gómez-Bautista
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002589:Cestoda / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D002590:Cestode Infections / Q000469:parasitology / Q000473:pathology / Q000662:veterinary*; D003643:Death; D006734:Horse Diseases; D006736:Horses; D010270:Parasite Egg Count / Q000379:methods / Q000662:veterinary*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013030:Spain