Lee, ACY, Epe, C and Bowman, DD (2013) Comparison of Ancylostoma caninum worm counts acquired by endoscopy and necropsy. Veterinary Parasitology. pp. 538-540.

Abstract

Many regulatory agencies require that the efficacy of veterinary anthelmintic medications be evaluated by enumerating parasites in treated and untreated animals after necropsy. Current ethical considerations, i.e., the 3 Rs of research, call for the replacement of this method with less invasive techniques that would not require animal sacrifice. This study tested standard gastrointestinal endoscopy as an in vivo method of quantifying the intestinal hookworm, Ancylostoma caninum. Worm counts were compared with those from gold standard necropsy. Thirteen dogs inoculated with third-stage A. caninum larvae underwent endoscopy 4-6 weeks post-infection, just prior to necropsy. Two-thirds of the adult hookworms were located in the middle section of the small intestine that could not be reached for endoscopic examination. Not surprisingly, the total worm counts obtained by endoscopy did not correlate with those from necropsy (R<sup>2</sup>=0.05, p=0.464). One method to increase small intestinal access would be to use specialized balloon or spiral endoscopes developed for this purpose in human gastroenterology. Based on the results of this study, standard endoscopy alone is unsuitable for quantification of A. caninum in the small intestine. Parasites in more accessible sites, such as whipworms in the cecum and colon, might be more appropriate targets for endoscopic counting. 2013 Elsevier B.V

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	pubid: 52 nvp_institute: NIBR contributor_address: (Lee, Bowman) Department of Microbiology and Immunology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell University, Box 5, Ithaca, NY 14853, United States (Epe) Centre de Recherche Sante Animale, Novartis Animal Health, CH-1566 Saint-Aubin FR, Switzerland (Epe) Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research Inc., 220 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States
Date Deposited:	13 Oct 2015 13:13
Last Modified:	13 Oct 2015 13:13
URI:	https://oak.novartis.com/id/eprint/21900