What you need:
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Fixed head centrifuge with speeds up to 2500 rpms (bought ours online for $100)
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Microscope (varying from 10x to 40x)
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15 ml tubes
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Slides and cover slips
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Cups
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Latex Gloves
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Gram Scale
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Metal Strainer
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Obtain a fecal sample of at least 5 grams. If you can only get a few grams worth, that will still work. Either pick up fresh pellets from the ground without contamination, or catch the alpaca and pull a sample from the rectum using lubricant jelly and a latex glove. When we pull our samples, we just turn the glove inside out to store the feces until you are ready to process. Keep in the refrigerator.
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Using a gram scale, weigh 5 grams of feces in a specimen container
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Add 95 mL of tap water (note: if you do not have 5 grams, see table below)
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Let feces sit in specimen container for 1 – 2 hours and then smash up feces until pellet is completely disintegrated (can pre-smash in glove before put in water to help with this step then smash again). Store covered specimen container in refrigerator overnight (can leave in for up to 5 to 7 days).
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Swirl mixture in specimen container to re-mix the feces, avoid making bubbles. Pour the mixture through a fine metal strainer (or tea strainer) into another container with a pouring spout.
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Immediately pour 10 mL of fecal solution into a tapered centrifuge tube. Centrifuge the sample for 7 minutes at speed 4 (out of 10)
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Pour off the supernatant (water) and fill half the tube with sugar solution (see recipe) and mix in the fecal pellet at the bottom of the tube thoroughly – using a plastic stir stick. Wood can absorb bacteria, so we suggest plastic.
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Fill the rest of the tube with sugar solution until a small bulge forms just above the top of the tube and place a coverslip on top of the tube.
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Let sit for at least 120 minutes and then carefully remove coverslip and place on slide
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Count ALLthe Strongyle-type eggs (count Nematodirus separate), Eimeria macusaniensis (E. mac-Large coccidia), small and medium coccidia, Tapeworms, Whip worms, Capillaria, etc, separately
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Multiple each count by 2, Specific gravity 1.27
|
Feces (grams)
|
Water (mL)
|
Multiply
|
|
5
|
95
|
2
|
|
4
|
76
|
2
|
|
3
|
57
|
2
|
|
2
|
38
|
2
|
|
1
|
19
|
2
|
