%0 Journal Article
%T Comparison of FECPAKG2, a modified Mini-FLOTAC technique and combined sedimentation and flotation for the coproscopic examination of helminth eggs in horses.
%A Boelow H
%A Krücken J
%A Thomas E
%A Mirams G
%A von Samson-Himmelstjerna G
%A Boelow H
%A Krücken J
%A Thomas E
%A Mirams G
%A von Samson-Himmelstjerna G
%A Boelow H
%A Krücken J
%A Thomas E
%A Mirams G
%A von Samson-Himmelstjerna G
%J Parasit Vectors
%V 15
%N 1
%D May 2022 12
%M 35549990
%F 4.047
%R 10.1186/s13071-022-05266-y
%X <B>BACKGROUND: </B>Due to high prevalence of anthelmintic resistance in equine helminths, selective treatment is increasingly promoted and in some countries a positive infection diagnosis is mandatory before treatment. Selective treatment is typically recommended when the number of worm eggs per gram faeces (epg) exceeds a particular threshold. In the present study we compared the semi-quantitative sedimentation/flotation method with the quantitative methods Mini-FLOTAC and FECPAKG2 in terms of precision, sensitivity, inter-rater reliability and correlation of worm egg counts to improve the choice of optimal diagnostic tools.<BR><B>METHODS: </B>Using sedimentation/flotation (counting raw egg numbers up to 200), we investigated 1067 horse faecal samples using a modified Mini-FLOTAC approach (multiplication factor of 5 to calculate epgs from raw egg counts) and FECPAKG2 (multiplication factor of 45).<BR><B>RESULTS: </B>Five independent analyses of the same faecal sample with all three methods revealed that variance was highest for the sedimentation/flotation method while there were no significant differences between methods regarding the coefficient of variance. Sedimentation/flotation detected the highest number of samples positive for strongyle and Parascaris spp. eggs, followed by Mini-FLOTAC and FECPAKG2. Regarding Anoplocephalidae, no significant difference in frequency of positive samples was observed between Mini-FLOTAC and sedimentation/flotation. Cohen's κ values comparing individual methods with the combined result of all three methods revealed almost perfect agreement (κ ≥ 0.94) for sedimentation/flotation and strong agreement for Mini-FLOTAC (κ ≥ 0.83) for strongyles and Parascaris spp. For FECPAKG2, moderate and weak agreements were found for the detection of strongyle (κ = 0.62) and Parascaris (κ = 0.51) eggs, respectively. Despite higher sensitivity, the Mini-FLOTAC mean epg was significantly lower than that with FECPAKG2 due to samples with > 200 raw egg counts by sedimentation/flotation, while in samples with lower egg shedding epgs were higher with Mini-FLOTAC than with FECPAKG2.<BR><B>CONCLUSIONS: </B>For the simple detection of parasite eggs, for example, to treat foals infected with Parascaris spp., sedimentation/flotation is sufficient and more sensitive than the other two quantitative investigared in this study. Mini-FLOTAC is predicted to deliver more precise results in faecal egg count reduction tests due to higher raw egg counts. Finally, to identify animals with a strongyle epg above a certain threshold for treatment, FECPAKG2 delivered results comparable to Mini-FLOTAC.