Test for fasciola

Re: Test for fasciola

Vikki Halliday LLB — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 22:44:10 GMT

Yep I admit, I am dazed and confused Michael! I knew it was time to change my hair colour away from blonde.... [:-)]

Re: Test for fasciola

Michael Woodhouse — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 20:42:58 GMT

[quote user="Vikki Halliday"]

I fully expect to be corrected, (cos my memory is not what it used to be!), but we used Baerman's flotation for faecal samples, but there are ELISAs too, just couldn't tell you who does them.

[/quote]

Oh Vikki, you are confusing fluke and lungworm. The Baerman is a larval hatch looking for lungworm L1 larvae.

The VLA do a centrifugation procedure that increases the sensitivity of finding the fluke in a minimum sample of 40g. [cf a normal WEC where you might use 5 or 2.5 grammes of faeces].

Your best bet would be to see if you could spend a day at your local VLA and learn these things first hand.

In sheep the ELISA isn't validated but they will run it if asked. I usually do albumin, globulin GGT in sheep.

Re: Test for fasciola

Heather Toft — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 20:21:49 GMT

Yes, microscopy can be used as a diagnostic test for fluke, can be done with a mcmaster slide in house if you're feeling particularly keen, but you need to use zinc sulphate as a flotation solution rather than saturated salt solution due to the density of the eggs. I've given up on this faff and now pack them off to the VLA, who insist on at least 50g of faeces before they will give you a yay or a nay. Bear in mind that only the adult stages of fluke will be producing eggs so you'll miss immature stages of infestation, and that eggs are intermittently shed also.

I use the ELISA, on serum or bulk milk (available for cattle, not sheep as far as I know), mainly as a health planning tool, testing for exposure to fluke not necessarily current infestation. I use the VLA or SAC but I imagine all large animal labs will run this test. I test a few homebred cows and assume that if their antibody levels are high then they've encountered fluke on that farm and routine fluke control might be an idea. I've no idea how long the antibodies would hang around for once exposure to fluke has been removed, maybe someone else can answer that.

I've also sent sheep bloods for liver parameters on a couple of occasions trying to look for acute infestations where eggs would not yet have been present in faeces. I think AST & GLDH suggest acute disease whereas GGT suggests chronic, something to do with maturation & migration to the biliary tree.

Re: Test for fasciola

Vikki Halliday LLB — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 18:58:25 GMT

I fully expect to be corrected, (cos my memory is not what it used to be!), but we used Baerman's flotation for faecal samples, but there are ELISAs too, just couldn't tell you who does them.

Re: Test for fasciola

Anonymous — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 17:11:14 GMT

Hi Alison,

Been out of mixed practice for over a year now, but definitely did send off for fluke ELISA's on occasions for clinical cases (rather than just herd screening). Also sometimes sent off for basic liver enzyme markers and albumin/globulins, with the assumption that liver damage was often due to fluke. Can examine faeces for fluke eggs f remember rightly, but not sure what sensitvty of this is? I'll guess less than 50%, but not really sure.

Seems like a long time since I treated a cow, so I'm sure someone will shortly correct this post!