Captive animals commonly have infections by direct life cycle parasites, since they are easily transmitted between individuals. However, diagnosing these infections in the laboratory is challenging due to the wide variety of parasite, their life stages and to the variety of available diagnose techniques, being difficult to choose the best one. The present study sampled a group of captive Indian peafowl (Pavo cristatus) from Sao Paulo Zoological Park Foundation, Sao Paulo, Brazil, to test and compare different coproscopical techniques commonly applied in veterinarian clinical analysis laboratories: direct smear, concentrations by sodium chlorite, sucrose, zinc sulphate, faecal sedimentation and formalin-ether followed by modified Ziehl-Neelsen staining. Sensitivity, specificity, predictive values (positive and negative) and Cohen’s kappa index were calculated. In total 108 samples were processed and parasites found were: nonsporulated coccidian oocysts (91.7%), Capillarinae eggs (89.8%), unidentified nematode larvae (75%), Ascarididae eggs (63%), unidentified nematode adults (60.2%), unidentified nematode eggs (42.6%), strongylid-like eggs (42.6%), Cryptosporidium spp. (28.7%), flagellated (15.7%) and ciliated (10.2%) protozoans, trematode eggs (0.9%), Acanthocephala eggs (0.9%), Adeleidae oocysts (0.9%) and Cruzia sp. eggs (0.9%). Sensitivity and specificity varied considerably between parasite groups. Cohen’s Kappa index reinforces the recommendation of applying more than one technique to diagnose enteroparasites infections.
Occurrence of endoparasites in Ramphastidae (Aves: Piciformes) in São Paulo Zoo
Ramphastidae (Aves: Piciformes) are animals recognized for their exuberant colours and long bill, with distribution range from south Mexico to north Argentina. They are important seed dispersers eating little vertebrates eventually. When in captivity, animals usually live in limited spaces, with high density and near by species that do not share a evolution history, facilitating the occurrence of infectious diseases for what they may not have a competent immune system against, including the parasitic ones. This study analyzed the endoparasites that occur in captive Ramphastidae at São Paulo Zoo in the period January 2009 to September 2011. Seven species of toucans and toucanets had parasitological results positive for Trichuridae nematodes, Eimeria sp., Giardia sp., non sporulated coccidian oocists and unidentified nematode eggs, and microfilarie was the only hemoparasite found.