The recovery of added nematode eggs from horse and sheep faeces by three methods

BACKGROUND: Nematode infections in horses are widespread across the world. Increasing levels of anthelmintic resistance, reported worldwide in equine parasites, have led to the creation of programs for the control of nematodes based on faecal egg counts (FEC). To improve nematode egg counting in equine faecal samples and establish whether the matrix of equine faeces or the eggs affect the counts, the analytical sensitivity, accuracy and precision of Mini-FLOTAC (combined with Fill-FLOTAC), McMaster and Cornell-Wisconsin techniques were compared. Known numbers of eggs extracted from equine or ovine faeces were added to egg free ovine and equine faeces to give counts of 10, 50, 200 and 500 eggs per gram (EPG) of faeces. RESULTS: The Cornell-Wisconsin significantly underestimated egg counts and McMaster showed a low analytical sensitivity, revealing 100% of sensitivity only for concentrations greater than 200 EPG. EPG values detected by Mini-FLOTAC did not differ significantly from expected counts at any level of egg density. CONCLUSIONS: Mini-FLOTAC combined to Fill-FLOTAC which provides an accurate method of weighing without need for a balance and filtering out debris, could be used for FEC on the farm as well as in the laboratory. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12917-017-1326-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.