Prevalence, Risk Factors and Diagnosis of Helminths in Thoroughbred Horses Kept at Training Centers in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

• Published in: Journal of equine veterinary science 2023-08, Vol.127, p.104536, Article 104536
• Main Authors: Martins, André V., Corrêa, Laís L., Ribeiro, Mariana S., Lobão, Lucas F., Dib, Laís V., Palmer, João P.S., de Moura, Lucas C., Knackfuss, Fabiana B., Uchôa, Claudia M.A., Molento, Marcelo B., Barbosa, Alynne da Silva
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; Brazil - epidemiology; Helminths; Horses; Intestinal parasites; Parascaris spp; Parasite Egg Count - methods; Parasite Egg Count - veterinary; Prevalence; Risk Factors; Sodium Chloride; strongylids
• ISSN: 0737-0806
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jevs.2023.104536

•The first parasitological-epidemiological survey with Thoroughbreds horses in Brazil.•Strongyles and Parascaris spp. were the parasites detected in the feces of horses.•Younger horses showed higher frequency and OPG values for strongyles.•Comparison of different flotation solutions used in the Mini-FLOTAC was carried out.•Mini-FLOTAC using NaCl was the best technique for diagnosing and counting parasites. The aims of this study were to determine the prevalence of helminths in Thoroughbred horses in Rio de Janeiro; make correlations with risk factors for these infections; and compare the efficiency of three floatation solutions applied in the quantitative Mini-FLOTAC technique. Fecal samples from 520 horses were collected from six training centers between 2019 and 2021. These were subjected to the Mini-FLOTAC technique using three solutions: NaCl (density = 1.200 g/mL), ZnSO4 (1.350 g/mL) and ZnSO4 (1.200 g/mL); and also to qualitative techniques. Information on the horses’ sex and age of horses was retrieved from the studbook; data on management from a questionnaire. The overall prevalence of intestinal parasites was 71.9%, with significant differences between training centers (P ≤ .05). On farm C, 87.7% of the samples presented strongylids and 38.7% had Parascaris spp., with the highest egg counts per gram of feces (EPG), of 358.33 and 40.41 respectively. Horses less than 3 years of age were about eight times more likely to be parasitized by strongylids and eleven times more likely to have EPG ≥500. The NaCl solution used in Mini-FLOTAC enabled recovery of the greatest number of samples with high EPG and reached the highest sensitivity values in the diagnosis when compared to the other solutions. Moreover, in the diagnoses, the levels of agreement between the results from the solutions used in Mini-FLOTAC were substantial. However, in estimating the EPG, full agreement between the results from the solutions used in Mini-FLOTAC was not obtained.