Faecal egg counting techniques (ECTs) are useful tools for assessing anthelmintic efficacy and selecting hosts resistant to parasite infection. McMaster (MM) is one of the most commonly used ECTs, but it suffers from low sensitivity and precision. Mini-FLOTAC (MF) has been proposed to replace MM, but so far has not been evaluated for gastro-intestinal nematode infections in chickens. This study compared sensitivity, precision, and accuracy of MM and MF with two trials using egg-spiked faecal samples ranging from 50–1250 eggs per gram of faeces (EPG). In addition, effects of two flotation fluids with different specific gravities (SG), namely salt (SG = 1.20) and sucrose solutions (SG = 1.32), on accuracy and time-spent for both ECTs were evaluated.

Overall sensitivity based on the composite reads across all EPG-levels was 97.1 % for MM and 100 % for MF. MF was, however, more sensitive (P = 0.003) or tended to (P = 0.087) be more sensitive than MM at only the lowest EPG-level (i.e. 50 EPG) using one of the duplicate reads, whereas there was no significant difference at any EPG-level using composite reads. Overall average precision of MF (79.5 %) was higher (P < 0.001) than that of MM (63.4 %) across all EPG-levels. Precision of MM increased from 22 to 87 % with increasing EPG-levels from 50–1250 EPG. Corresponding precision estimates for MF ranged from 76 to 91 %. Overall recovery rate of MM (74.6 %) was significantly higher (P < 0.001) than that of MF (60.1 %). There was no significant difference in recovery rate of spiked-eggs among different EPG-levels (P = 0.833). Recovery rate of MM ranged from 64 % to 79 % across different EPG-levels, while it ranged from 54 % to 64 % with MF without an interaction between ECT and EPG-level (P = 0.701). It took more time (P < 0.001) to process (prepare and read) samples with MF than with MM using the same flotation fluid. The sugar solution tended to (P = 0.100) increase egg-recovery with both ECTs, while increasing (P < 0.001) time-spent for processing the samples.

Our data collectively suggest that MM is less sensitive than MF only at around minimum detection level of MM when using unrepeated reads. We conclude that McMaster is faster, relatively more accurate but less precise than Mini-FLOTAC. The sugar solution with higher SG increases accuracy of both techniques at the expense of increased labour time.

粪便卵计数技术（ECTs）是评估驱虫效果和选择对寄生虫感染具有抵抗力的宿主的有用工具。McMaster（MM）是最常用的ECT之一，但它的灵敏度和精度较低。有人提出用Mini-FLOTAC（MF）代替MM，但迄今为止尚未对鸡的胃肠道线虫感染进行评估。这项研究使用两次掺有鸡蛋的粪便样本（每克粪便50–1250个鸡蛋）对MM和MF的敏感性，精密度和准确性进行了比较。此外，还评估了两种具有不同比重（SG）的浮选液，即盐（SG = 1.20）和蔗糖溶液（SG = 1.32）对两种ECT的准确性和时间的影响。

基于所有EPG级别的复合读数的总体灵敏度，MM为97.1％，MF为100％。然而，使用重复读数之一，在最低的EPG水平（即50 EPG）下，MF比MM更敏感（P = 0.003）或倾向于（P = 0.087）比MM更敏感。在任何EPG级别使用复合读取。在所有EPG水平上，MF（79.5％）的总体平均精度高于MM（63.4％）（P <0.001）。随着EPG水平从50–1250 EPG的增加，MM的精度从22％提高到87％。MF的相应精度估算范围为76％到91％。MM的总体恢复率（74.6％）显着高于MF的总体恢复率（P <0.001）（60.1％）。在不同的EPG水平之间，加标鸡蛋的回收率没有显着差异（P = 0.833）。在不同的EPG水平下，MM的回收率范围为64％至79％，而在MF与ECT和EPG水平之间没有相互作用的情况下，MM的回收率范围为54％至64％（P = 0.701）。使用相同的浮选液，使用MF处理（准备和读取）样品要比使用MM处理（准备和读取）样品花费更多的时间（P <0.001）。两种ECT的糖溶液趋向于（P = 0.100）增加卵回收率，而处理样品所花费的时间却增加（P <0.001）。

我们的数据共同表明，在使用非重复读取时，只有在MM的最低检测水平附近，MM才比MF敏感。我们得出的结论是，McMaster比Mini-FLOTAC更快，相对更准确但不那么精确。具有较高SG的糖溶液以增加劳动时间为代价提高了两种技术的准确性。