Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
How dog poop eating can cause false parasite test results
By Nijsse, R et al.·Published in Veterinary parasitology·2014·Department of Infectious Diseases and Immunology, Netherlands·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Coprophagy in dogs interferes in the diagnosis of parasitic infections by faecal examination.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A study found that many dogs who eat feces (coprophagy) can lead to misleading test results for intestinal worm infections. In this case, 246 dogs initially tested positive for Toxocara eggs, but nearly half of them tested negative when owners prevented their dogs from eating feces for three days before retesting. This suggests that the first positive result was likely a false alarm caused by the dogs consuming feces. The findings highlight the importance of considering coprophagy when diagnosing intestinal parasites in dogs.
People also search for: dog eating poop · dog Toxocara infection symptoms · how to stop coprophagy in dogs
Abstract
Many dogs display coprophagic behaviour. Helminth eggs can passively pass the dog's digestive tract and this may result in a false positive diagnosis of infection with gastrointestinal helminth parasites. For a period of one year, faecal samples of dogs were examined monthly using the Centrifugal Sedimentation Flotation (CSF) technique with a sugar flotation solution (s.g. 1.27-1.30 g/cm(3)). If a sample tested positive for canine helminth eggs, the owner was asked to submit another sample after preventing the dog from eating faeces for 3 days. If the second sample again tested positive for the same type of helminth egg, the dog was considered to have a patent infection. If the second sample tested negative, the first sample was considered a false positive due to coprophagy. The focus of this study was on dogs shedding Toxocara eggs. At the first examination, 246 samples (out of 308 samples testing positive for canine-specific helminth eggs) tested positive for Toxocara spp. Of these, 120 (49%) tested negative at the second examination. Coprophagic behaviour was recognized by 261 of the 564 owners that answered the accompanying questionnaire. This concerned 391 dogs. Coproscopical examination also provided proof of coprophagy (e.g. oocysts of Eimeria spp. or non-dog typical helminth eggs) in dogs belonging to owners that did not report coprophagic behaviour in their dogs. Results indicate that coprophagy in dogs may result in an overestimation of the prevalence of patent helminth infections and that dogs may serve as a transport host for helminth eggs.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24880647/