The level of embryonation influences detection of Ostertagia ostertagi eggs by semi-quantitative PCR

Parasites & Vectors

Table 1 ITS2 copies obtained from four stages of development of Ostertagia ostertagi

	Unembryonated eggs	Early embryonated eggs	Embryonated eggs	First-stage larvae (L1)
	(n = 81)	(n = 3)	(n = 6)	(n = 12)
Mean sample ± SEM (molecules μl^-1)^a	2,841 ± 840	4,285 ± 1,818	19,970 ± 9,090	101,767 ± 9,753
Mean parasite ± SEM (molecules)^b	114 ± 34	171 ± 73	799 ± 364	4,070 ± 390
Mean parasite corr. ± SEM (molecules)^c	568 ± 168	857 ± 363	3,994 ± 1,818	20,353 ± 1,950
Coefficient of variation (%)	266	73	111	33

^aMean sample = total number of ITS2 copies for a given stage divided by the number of samples
^bMean parasite = mean sample divided by 25× parasites
^cMean parasite corr. = theoretical value of the mean parasite multiplied by five to correct for genomic DNA partitioning. Each sample contained 25× parasites
Abbreviations: n number of samples analyzed for each developmental stage, SEM standard error of the mean

ISSN: 1756-3305