I am not sure about the molecular, but I think you can do the traditional if sample is not too old.

Let's wait what other peoples say! Thanks!

Have you performed traditional parasitological analysis on old fecal samples of animals? If so, what was your success rate? were you able to identify expected genera or only specific ones?

thanks.

Hello Bindu; Archeologists in the southwestern USA have described intestinal parasites from the mummified feces of people in dig sites upwards of 1000 years old. I don't have a citation at hand. Sites like Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde are likely to have had such studies done. You might search for something like that. Best regards, Jim Des Lauriers

Hello! I am studying 1 y.o. fecal samples from herbivores right now. (Mine are from reindeer.) They were stored in refrigerator (+4). I found Nematode eggs and larvae and Cestode eggs. Not only I could identify them up to genera, some eggs and all larvae were alive.

In reindeer, there are larvae which can survive drying (for month and years). So even if the faeces you have are dry, there are still some chances. But 50/50.

thank you, James Des Lauriers I did look at coprolite studies. and have found some useful information. However, they all deal with human feces. Fecal composition in humans is very different to that in herbivores and animals in general. so the problems encountered in sample analysis might be very different. Thank you for your suggestion though.

Thank you, Olga A. Loginova. That sounds promising... Did you use traditional parasitological methods only or did you also use molecular tools?

Dear Bindu Raghavan , I used only traditional morphological (sedimentation, flotation ovoscopy + larvascopy) methods. But if there are live parasites I see no reasons preventing molecular research.

It has been done with a human (Ötzi, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96tzi), and Trichuris trichiura has been identified after more than 5000 years

Thank you, Christian G Meyer