ArticleBMC veterinary research2025
Advancing gastrointestinal parasite diagnosis in West African long-legged lambs in Southern Benin: a comparative study of McMaster and Mini-FLOTAC methods.
Article in BMC veterinary research, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundGastrointestinal (GI) parasites remain a significant global challenge to livestock health and farm productivity, particularly in resource-limited regions. Accurate and reliable fecal egg count (FEC) methods are essential for quantifying parasite burden and evaluating anthelmintic efficacy. This study compared the diagnostic performance of the Mini-FLOTAC and the modified McMaster techniques for detecting GI parasites in West African Long-legged (WALL) sheep under field conditions in southern Benin.
methodsA cross-sectional survey was conducted, during which 200 fresh fecal samples were collected from four-month-old lambs across five representative sheep farms. Each sample was divided and analyzed in parallel using the Mini-FLOTAC (using 2 g of feces diluted in a 1:10 ratio with saturated sodium chloride solution) and the modified McMaster technique (using 3 g of feces in a 1:15 dilution). Diagnostic parameters, including the intensity of infection expressed as eggs/oocysts per gram of feces (EPG/OPG, respectively), the prevalence, and the precision, were statistically analyzed and compared. Method agreement was assessed using Cohen’s kappa coefficient.
resultsThe Mini-FLOTAC technique demonstrated superior performance, detecting a broader spectrum of parasites, including Nematodirus spp., Marshallagia spp., and Moniezia spp., which were frequently undetected by McMaster. Agreement between techniques was high for strongylids and Eimeria spp. (κ ≥ 0.76), but poor for other taxa (κ < 0.30). Mini-FLOTAC recorded significantly higher FECs and oocyst per gram of feces (OPG) values across farms (p < 0.05), and consistently exhibited greater diagnostic precision, with lower coefficients of variation (CVs ranging from 12.37% to 18.94%) and higher reproducibility (> 80% precision). Misclassification analysis revealed that the McMaster method underdiagnosed up to 12.5% of infections, especially for low-shedding species.
conclusionsThese findings highlight Mini-FLOTAC as a more sensitive, precise, and operationally robust tool for GI parasite surveillance in small ruminants. Its adoption can improve the reliability of epidemiological monitoring and support sustainable parasite control programs in resource-limited settings.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.