Egg production of Oesophagostomum bifurcum, a locally common parasite of humans in Togo.

In northern Togo and northeastern Ghana, Oesophagostomum bifurcum is a common parasite in humans. Diagnosis is based on coproculture because the eggs of hookworm and Oesophagostomum are indistinguishable. To determine the level of egg production, 12 subjects were treated with 2 x 10 mg/kg of pyrantel pamoate and the worms they evacuated were then counted. Pretreatment and post-treatment species-specific egg counts were calculated on the basis of larval and total egg counts. The median worm burden was 81 (range 12-300) per person. The calculated median egg production was 33.7 egg/gram of feces per female worm. Assuming a total daily stool production of 150 g/day, this amounts to 5,055 eggs/day, which is comparable with the production of other nematodes of the same superfamily.