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Evaluating faecal egg count reduction using a specifically designed package "eggCounts" in R and a user friendly web interface

Torgerson, Paul R; Paul, Michaela; Furrer, Reinhard (2014). Evaluating faecal egg count reduction using a specifically designed package "eggCounts" in R and a user friendly web interface. International Journal for Parasitology, 44(5):299-303.

Abstract

The seemingly straightforward task of analysing faecal egg counts resulting from laboratory procedures such as the McMaster technique has, in reality, a number of complexities. These include Poisson errors in the counting technique which result from eggs being randomly distributed in well mixed faecal samples. In addition, counts between animals in a single experimental or observational group are nearly always over-dispersed. We describe the R package "eggCounts" that we have developed that incorporates both sampling error and over-dispersion between animals to calculate the true egg counts in samples of faeces, the probability distribution of the true counts and summary statistics such as the 95% uncertainty intervals. Based on a hierarchical Bayesian framework, the software will also rigorously estimate the percentage reduction of faecal egg counts and the 95% uncertainty intervals of data generated by a faecal egg count reduction test. We have also developed a user friendly web interface that can be used by those with limited knowledge of the R statistical computing environment. We illustrate the package with three simulated data sets of faecal egg count reduction experiments.

Additional indexing

Item Type:Journal Article, refereed, original work
Communities & Collections:07 Faculty of Science > Institute of Mathematics
05 Vetsuisse Faculty > Veterinärwissenschaftliches Institut > Chair in Veterinary Epidemiology
07 Faculty of Science > Department of Astrophysics
Dewey Decimal Classification:570 Life sciences; biology
610 Medicine & health
510 Mathematics
Scopus Subject Areas:Life Sciences > Parasitology
Health Sciences > Infectious Diseases
Uncontrolled Keywords:Anthelmintic resistance, Bayesian hierarchical model, Faecal egg count reduction test, Mathematical techniques, Statistical analysis
Language:English
Date:2014
Deposited On:04 Apr 2014 09:41
Last Modified:11 Mar 2025 02:37
Publisher:Elsevier
ISSN:0020-7519
OA Status:Green
Publisher DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpara.2014.01.005
PubMed ID:24556564
Project Information:
  • Funder: FP7
  • Grant ID: 288975
  • Project Title: GLOWORM - Innovative and sustainable strategies to mitigate the impact of global change on helminth infections in ruminants
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