title: Ancylostoma caninum: calibration and comparison of diagnostic accuracy of flotation in tube, McMaster and FLOTAC in faecal samples of dogs.
abstract: We performed a calibration of flotation in tube, McMaster and FLOTAC to determine the optimal flotation solution (FS) and the influence of faecal preservation for the diagnosis of Ancylostoma caninum in dogs, and compared the accuracy of the three copromicroscopic techniques. Among nine different FS, sodium chloride and sodium nitrate performed best for detection and quantification of A. caninum eggs. Faecal samples, either fresh or preserved in formalin 5%, resulted in higher A. caninum egg counts, compared to frozen samples or preserved in formalin 10% or sodium acetate-acetic acid-formalin. FLOTAC consistently resulted in higher A. caninum eggs per gram of faeces (EPG) and lower coefficient of variation (CV) than McMaster and flotation in tube. The best results in terms of mean faecal egg counts (highest value, i.e. 117.0EPG) and CV (lowest value, i.e. 4.8%) were obtained with FLOTAC using sodium chloride and faecal samples preserved in formalin 5%. Our findings suggest that the FLOTAC technique should be considered for the diagnosis of A. caninum in dogs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology and Animal Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Naples Federico II, CREMOPAR Regione Campania, Naples, Italy. cringoli@unina.it
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cringoli
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Rinaldi
authors.forename: Maria Paola
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Maurelli
authors.forename: Maria Elena
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Morgoglione
authors.forename: Vincenzo
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Musella
authors.forename: Jürg
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Utzinger
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000722:Ancylostoma / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D000724:Ancylostomiasis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000469:parasitology / Q000662:veterinary*; D000818:Animals; D002138:Calibration; D004283:Dog Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000469:parasitology; D004285:Dogs; D005243:Feces / Q000469:parasitology*; D010270:Parasite Egg Count / Q000379:methods / Q000662:veterinary*; D011897:Random Allocation