ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Parasitology
This article is part of the Research TopicCutting-edge diagnostics in livestock disease managementView all 3 articles
Comparison of OvaCyteTM Speciation and PNA Staining for Detection of Haemonchus contortus in Ovine Faecal Samples
Provisionally accepted
- 1Telenostic Ltd, R95 WN20, Kilkenny, Ireland, Kilkenny, Ireland
- 2University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
- 3Department of Biology, Faculty of Arts and Sciences-Gamines, University of Benghazi, 33FX+QV9, Benghazi, Libya, Benghazi, Libya
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Background Haemonchus contortus represents one of the most pathogenic and economically important species of gastrointestinal nematodes in livestock. Recent advancements hads led to the development of artificial intelligence powered OvaCyteTM Speciation method, which enables is capable of quantification of the proportion (%) of Haemonchus contortus eggs identified from the among strongyle eggs in a faecal sample. Methods This study evaluates the diagnostic performance of the OvaCyteTM Speciation method in comparison to the conventional peanut agglutinin fluorescence staining method as a true reference across 110 fresh ovine faecal samples. Results Of the total samples, 92 (82.9%) were tested positive for Haemonchus contortus. Based on the OvaCyteTM Speciation egg counts, the results showed a marked increase in the mean Haemonchus contortus egg count corresponding with rising mean strongyle egg counts. A very strong correlation was revealed between OvaCyte speciation and peanut agglutinin staining (rₛ = 0.90, P < 0.05). OvaCyteTM Speciation demonstrated high sensitivity of 100% and specificity of 89% for detection of Haemonchus contortus. Conclusion These findings validate OvaCyteTM Speciation as a reliable alternative to peanut agglutinin staining method, particularly in field and clinical settings where rapid turnaround and ease of use are critical. Its application could enhance routine herd surveillance and enable evidence-based parasite control in resource-limited or on-farm environments.
Keywords: Ovine, Parasitic diagnostics, Faecal egg count, OvaCyteTM Speciation, Haemonchus contortus
Received: 19 Aug 2025; Accepted: 14 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Elghryani, Lahan, Gohain, McOwan and Waal. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Nagwa Elghryani, nagwa@telenostic.com
Geetika Lahan, lahangeetika@gmail.com
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