I need to collect fecal samples of captive and free ranging wild animals for identification of bacteria and parasites. I need to know
1. is there any particular method that is to be followed to avoid the duplicacy of the samples. What is the procedure followed in sampling free ranging animals.
2. Also in case of captive animal if I may not get the individual sample directly from animals and I have to get them from ground so I don't know which individuals sample is that, how can I be sure that I have taken the sample of all the animals if there are 30 animals in the group. Is there any specific recommendations how to do sampling like we have to 3 times or four times the samples to the no. of animals or like that.
Qayoom--- food coloring is often added to the diet of individual captive animals in order to identify their particular feces. Obviously, it would not be possible to provide 30 different, identifiable, colors of food coloring to 30 individual animals-- but I believe you could collect samples from a few individuals within the larger group, and then compare them to pooled samples of the larger group. If you do this several times (sampling different individuals in each trial), you should be able to derive a mathematically valid mean and standard deviation from the statistical norm.
For captive animals, is it possible for you to watch them defecate and then note the location of the samples?
For free-ranging animals, its important to consider the density of the population. If you know the density of the population, you can calculate the probability that two samples come from the same individual if you collect 4, 5, or 6 samples per square kilometer.
For free-ranging animals one way we go with birds is to select monospecific (composed of just one species) resting flocks and drive them away (after counting), then collecting just very fresh droppings. This way you can be sure that you are not sampling the same animal twice and you will be able to calculate a mean prevalence for the flock, however allocation of samples to individuals is not possible.
For captive animals I would suggest following the recommendation from Kimberly. I needed to collect faecal samples for chemical analysis from hedgehogs. The hedgehogs in question were sick individuals that were being cared for by myself at my hedgehog rescue centre. The job was fairly straightforward.as each animal was housed separately and thus samples could be collected in the safe knowledge that they came from a particular animal. I have attached the paper that resulted from this work in case it might be of interest.
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