Effectiveness of coproscopic concentration techniques

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to compare the effectiveness of the concentration techniques of flotation-centrifugation with zinc chloride (FZn) (δ = 1.45) with the spontaneous sedimentation (SSed) and the sucrose flotation-centrifugation (FSuc) (δ = 1.2) to recuperate gastrointestinal parasites from camelid fecal samples. The technique with more positive results for the detection of Nematodirus sp., Trichuris sp., strongyle-type eggs and Eimeria macusaniensis oocysts was the FZn. For Trichuris sp. and Eimeria macusaniensis, the higher coverglass counts were detected by FZn procedure. No significant differences were registered among centrifugation flotation techniques for Nematodirus spp. Coverglass count for strongyle-type eggs was significantly higher for FSuc than FZn (p = 0.0005) or SSed (p = 0.0005), being also significantly higher for FZn than for SSed (p = 0.008). FZn is a sensitive technique that allows the recovery of parasite elements with high density and it exerts low osmotic pressure avoiding parasite deformation.