APPLICATION OF A COMPOSITE FECAL EGG COUNT PROCEDURE IN DIAGNOSTIC PARASITOLOGY

Egg counts from a simple composite faecal counting procedure using equ al amounts of sample from ten sheep were compared statistically agains t the arithmetic means of the same ten samples prepared by a conventio nal egg counting method. Forty separate data sets were analysed in an untransformed bivariate plot and after natural logarithmic transformat ion. A sign test analysis indicated a high degree of similarity betwee n the two data sets. A confidence interval for the composite count (n = 10) was calculated to give a result between five eggs more and 15 eg gs less than the arithmetic mean count of the ten samples. When multip le faecal samples are to be examined, the composite method has signifi cant advantages in time saving and increased throughput whilst still p roviding an accurate result. This technique has been used to monitor g astrointestinal helminthosis and for faecal egg count reduction testin g to assess anthelmintic efficacy.