Comparative Efficiency of Zinc Sulfate and Sugar Solutions for the Simultaneous Flotation of Coccidial Oocysts and Helminth Eggs

Abstract

floating protozoan cysts while others were more satisfactory in recovering helminth eggs. Until recently, however, little or no attempt was made to collect experimental data on the efficiency of substances for the simultaneous flotation of both protozoan o6cysts and helminth eggs from the same medium. Faust et al (1938, 1939) tested several techniques for the recovery of protozoan cysts and heiminth eggs simultaneously from human feces and found that zinc sulfate solution having a specific gravity of 1.180 recovered the largest number of these forms. Garcia and Pesigan (1940) demonstrated that the IHP flotation method (named after Institute of Hygiene, Department of Parasitology, University of Philippines) involving the use of cupric nitrate having a specific gravity of 1.180 was just as effective in the diagnosis of helminth ova and protozoan cysts in human feces as zinc sulfate technique. These authors recommended the cupric nitrate technique for the following reasons: (1) smear preparations do not dry, even without the cover slip, for one month or more; (2) cupric nitrate preparations give a clearer and cooler visual microscopic field thus alleviating eye strain; (3) the fecal material is stained bluish-green while the eggs and cysts remain unstained; and (4) the high solubility of cupric nitrate gives a wider range of specific gravities than zinc sulfate. Pesigan (1940) tested both the zinc sulfate and cupric nitrate techniques for the simultaneous flotation of helminth eggs and protozoan cysts from human feces and found that each gave an efficacy of approximately 90 per cent. The present paper presents data on the comparative efficiency of zinc sulfate and sugar solutions for the simultaneous flotation of coccidial oocysts and helminth eggs from naturally infected and artificially inoculated chicken feces and soil.