A FURTHER COMPARISON OF THE THUMB-COUNTING AND COMB-COUNTING TECHNIQUES USED TO DETERMINE CTENOCEPHALIDES-FELIS INFESTATION LEVELS ON DOGS

A comparison was made to determine whether thumb-counting or comb-coun ting was more accurate for determining flea infestation levels on dogs when performed for equal periods of time. To accomplish this, ten bea gle dogs were each infested with 100 adult fleas, Ctenocephalides feli s. After the fleas were allowed to disperse for 1 h the dogs were exam ined using the thumb-counting method. The time required to cover each dog and the number of fleas counted were recorded. Thumb-counting time s ranged from 3.0 to 4.8 min. Each of the dogs was then examined by th e comb-counting method for the same amount of time it had been thumb-c ounted. The thumb-counting method detected a geometric mean of five (r ange, 0-13) fleas per dog, while comb-counting recovered a mean of 73. 5 (range, 57-87) fleas per dog. These results were significantly diffe rent (P < 0.01), indicating that the differences in accuracy previousl y recorded for the two methods are independent of time. The standard d eviations for both methods were also statistically significantly diffe rent, suggesting that comb-counting is also more precise than the thum b-counting method.