A four-layer sieve technique for quantitative fecal examination of Fascioliasis of ruminants

Abstract

A technique for quantitative fecal examination of fascioliasis of ruminants in laboratory and field levels was developed. The technique requires 10 to 15 minutes per sample, without chemical products or glassware. The kit comprises four pieces of gradually finer sieves made with plastic reduction plugs for waterworks and stainless steel wire nets of 100, 180, 200 and 250 mesh with 174, 96, 87 and 65 µm in the aperture size, respectively. The first three sieves allow Fasciola hepatica eggs through but retain fecal debris according to the net’s aperture. The last sieve retains the eggs together with finer fecal debris. By the end of the sieving process, the eggs are counted with the aid of methyl green at 0.5%. Laboratory tests were performed to verify the efficacy of the technique. For the tests with bovine feces, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 200 and 400 F. hepatica eggs were added to 74 feces samples of 1 g and nearly 70% of the eggs were recovered. Fifty samples of 1 g of ovine feces with 2, 4, 8, 16 and 32 F. hepatica eggs, tested repeatedly, showed recovery rate of approximately 43%.