Contribution to an efficient diagnosis of Fasciola hepatica infection in naturally infected cattle

The control of fascioliasis caused by Fasciola hepatica depends on early detection and assessment of infection severity. A definitive diagnosis is the post-mortem recovery of flukes in the hepatic ducts and gallbladder, which is not feasible for herd monitoring. Coproparasitological techniques based on egg detection in feces are commonly used. This study evaluated the accuracy of the Dennis, Stone, and Swanson (DSS), quatro tamises (QT), and Gordon and Whitlock modified (GWM) techniques using parasitized livers as the gold standard. Of 784 carcasses, 105 (13.39 %) were parasitized by F. hepatica. The sensitivity was 43.8 % for DSS, 86.6 % for QT, and 7.6 % for GWM. In comparison with the gold standard, agreement on the Kappa scale was weak for GWM (0.10), moderate for DSS (0.45), and excellent for QT (0.84). Additionally, when comparing the techniques with each other, modest agreement was observed between QT and GWM (0.20), and moderate agreement between DSS and GWM (0.57) and DSS and QT (0.48). Parasite intensity did not influence (P > 0.05) the sensitivity of DSS and QT. These findings indicate that QT is the most sensitive and reliable coproparasitological technique for diagnosing F. hepatica infection in naturally infected cattle.