Reduced centrifugation duration improves diagnostic performance of an equine tapeworm egg counting technique
Malena Hughes, Nichol E Ripley, Mackenzie A Smith, Carlo Carta, Martin K Nielsen · 2026
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Description
Malena Hughes and co-authors tested whether a slow laboratory step in a horse tapeworm test could be shortened without hurting accuracy. The tapeworm Anoplocephala perfoliata can cause serious colic in horses. The best egg-counting method spins samples in a centrifuge three times for ten minutes each. In their 2026 study, fecal samples from ten mares known to shed tapeworm eggs were split into subsamples. They were processed with the standard timing or with spins shortened to five minutes or one minute.
Shorter spins actually performed better on every measure. The one-minute version produced positive counts in 86.2 percent of subsamples, compared with 70.7 percent for the standard method, and its counts varied less between repeats. The five-minute version landed in between, at 82.9 percent positive counts. The authors conclude that one-minute spins improve both detection and counting of tapeworm eggs.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Malena Hughes, Nichol E Ripley, Mackenzie A Smith, Carlo Carta, Martin K Nielsen |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 15 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |