Is gastrointestinal strongyle faecal egg count influenced by hour of sample collection and worm burden in goats? L. Rinaldi a , V. Veneziano a , M.E. Morgoglione a , S. Pennacchio a , M. Santaniello a , M. Schioppi a , V. Musella b , V. Fedele c , G. Cringoli a, * a Department of Pathology and Animal Health, University of Naples ‘‘Federico II’’, CREMOPAR Regione Campania, Naples, Italy b Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catanzaro Magna Graecia, Catanzaro, Italy c Istituto Sperimentale per la Zootecnia, Bella Scalo, Potenza, Italy 1. Introduction The issue of controlling gastrointestinal (GI) strongyles is of particular economic importance in goat production system worldwide (Rinaldi et al., 2007b,c). Conventional methods of worm control involve treatment(s) of the whole flock with synthetic anthelmintics. However, in this day and age, the global problem of anthelmintic resistance in small ruminants ensures that attention also needs to be given to the sustainability of anthelmintic treatment regimes as well as to their immediate economic benefit (Cringoli et al., 2007a,b, 2008). There is currently a general agreement to replace the practice of treating the whole flock with targeted selective treatments (TST), where only animals showing clinical symptoms or reduced produc- Veterinary Parasitology 163 (2009) 81–86 ARTICLE INFO Article history: Received 23 July 2008 Received in revised form 17 March 2009 Accepted 26 March 2009 Keywords: Gastrointestinal strongyles Faecal egg count Flotac double technique Goats Hour of sample collection Relationship between FEC and worm burden ABSTRACT Gastrointestinal (GI) strongyle infections remain one of the main constraints to goat production worldwide. Although several indicators of GI strongyle infections have been proposed, faecal egg count (FEC) techniques are the most common approaches for the estimation of prevalence and intensity of these parasites. However, FEC may be subjected to a within-individual variation due to factors such as weather, season, random day-to-day variation and phase of the parasitic infection. A longitudinal study of GI strongyle FEC was conducted on 63 dairy goats to evaluate the effects of hour of sample collection on FEC and the relationship between FEC and worm burden. The goats were naturally infected with Teladorsagia circumcincta, Haemonchus contortus, Trichostrongylus colubriformis and Oesophagostomum venulosum. Every 3 weeks for 14 months faeces were collected every 2 h for 24 h from three individually caged goats. The faeces were those passed by the goats during the 2 h preceding each collection. For each goat a sample from this material was analyzed using the Flotac double technique. To explore relationships between FECs and adult parasite counts, on the day following sampling, the three goats were euthanized and the nematodes present in the abomasa and intestines were recovered, identified and counted. The results of the general linear model did not show any significant effect of the hour of faecal sample collection on GI strongyle FEC, whereas a significant effect of the month of faecal sample collection was found. The results of the Pearson correlation showed a significant (P = 0.000) positive relationship between FEC and worm burden (r = 0.6), in particular regarding H. contortus (r = 0.9). In conclusion, the present study showed that the hour of sample collection does not influence the GI strongyle FEC and that there is a good relationship between FEC and total GI strongyle worm burden in goats. ß 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. * Corresponding author at: Department of Pathology and Animal Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Naples ‘‘Federico II’’, Via della Veterinaria, 1 - 80137 Naples, Italy. Tel.: +39 081 2536283; fax: +39 081 2536282. E-mail address: cringoli@unina.it (G. Cringoli). URL: http://www.parassitologia.unina.it Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Veterinary Parasitology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/vetpar 0304-4017/$ – see front matter ß 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.vetpar.2009.03.043