• Sampling schemes and methods, each with different performance levels, are available for the detection and quantification of C. suis in piglet faeces.
• The level of shedding is not the same in different lit- ters or barns, so the sampling strategy is particularly important.
• The sampling strategy must follow and respect the duration of the coccidian cycle (four to five days). Sampling during the first week of life does not usually provide relevant information, except in cases of early infection in piglets.
• Following artificial infection, individual animals usual- ly show a biphasic excretion pattern with a steep on- set at the beginning of patency, usually five to six days after infection (Figure. 1). Excretion can be observed for one to 10 days (with a median of five days) but can be longer in some animals.
• More piglets need to be sampled, and litters should be pooled for this purpose (50% of the litter is opti- mum).
• The prevalence on any given sampling day should never exceed one third of the animals. Because the time of infection in individuals or litters in the field is unknown, repeated sampling improves the detection sensitivity (sampling the same litters at two and three weeks of age).
○ Guidelines for sampling in the field are as follow (Mundt, 2005; Joachim et al., 2018b; Hinney et al., 2020): • Sampling should start two weeks after birth; do not target in the first week unless there is a clear suspicion of very early infection/disease.
• Samples of faeces taken from the anus of individual animals or fresh faeces from piglets after defecation should be pooled, with the aim of including five pig- lets per litter (optimally, 50% of piglets in the litter should be targeted).
• A minimum of 10 litters of different parity should be included, and selected litters (sows) should be identi- fied in order to perform repeated sampling one week later.
• On farms with batches exceeding 100 farrowing sows, sampling 10% of the litters/batch is optimal.
• To improve the probability of a successful diagnosis, repeated sampling should be performed in 10 litters in the second week after farrowing and repeated in the same 10 litters one week later, although the indi- vidual piglets sampled within each litter may differ.
• Diarrhoea and oocyst excretion are only weakly corre- lated and do not occur simultaneously so, preference for the collection of semi-liquid (picture on page 4) or liquid ( diarrhoeic) samples is not indicated. Collection
of faeces with a range of consistencies is optimal.
• Samples can be stored in the refrigerator pending shipment. These samples should be properly identi- fied and well protected against leakage during ship- ment. Never ship samples before the weekend and make sure to record the tracking number so that the shipment can be tracked in case of delay.
• Pasty faeces are the most frequently positive for coccidian oocysts, although it is important to collect sufficient (minimum of 100 g) faecal material.
○ Comparison of methods Several different methods are available for diagnosis of
Example of col- lected samples. It is important to collect suffi- cient feces and to label the samples prop- erly. Samples can be collected and sent up to seven days later if they are refrigerated.
Figure 2 - Frequency of Cystoisospora suis positivity during infection and correlation with the presentation of diarrhoea (Joachim et al., 2018b).
10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26
0 2 4 6 8
0 1 2 3 4
Number of days (n=14 sampling days) 7
5 6 8 9 3 10 11 12 13 14 excretion diarrhoea
Number of positive piglets (n=117)
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