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False-positive Trichuris suis egg counts in pigs in relation to coprophagia
J Boes1, M V Johansen, L Eriksen
1Danish Centre for Experimental Parasitology, Department of Veterinary Microbiology, Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Frederiksberg C, Denmark.
Parasite (Paris, France)
|October 1, 1998
Abstract:
Sixteen non-infected control pigs housed together with 16 pigs infected with Trichuris suis, excreted T. suis eggs in their faeces (range 20-4, 960 eggs per gram faeces (EPG)). When the control pigs were moved to clean pens, their egg counts dropped to zero EPG within five days. A significant correlation was found between T. suis egg counts of infected and control pigs penned together (r = 0.89, P < 0.001). These results suggest that false-positive faecal egg counts may be the result of coprophagia.