ICAR AIEEA (PG): Master's entrance, Veterinary Science and Animal Sciences · India · NTA for ICAR
Original practice questions written to the published syllabus · not past papersThe laboratory and field methods that find parasites in faeces, blood and skin, the immune response to parasites, parasitic zoonoses and integrated control. Advanced and postgraduate level.
In the exams: ICAR AICE-JRF subject paper (Parasitology); ICAR AIEEA-PG 13
ICAR AIEEA (PG) — Code 13 Veterinary Science (Parasitology)
Technique recall: McMaster chamber volume and EPG calculation, flotation solution specific gravities, sedimentation for flukes, Baermann for lungworms, modified Knott's test, Giemsa smears and the morphology of Babesia, Theileria and Anaplasma, modified Ziehl–Neelsen for Cryptosporidium, and major parasitic zoonoses.
How our questions for ICAR AIEEA spread across the units of Clinical, Diagnostic & Immuno-Parasitology. Difficulty: 19 easy, 28 medium, 0 hard.
| Sedimentation and flotation techniques | 7 | |
| Blood smear examination | 6 | |
| Serodiagnosis of parasitic infections | 6 | |
| Immunoparasitology | 6 | |
| Integrated parasite control | 6 | |
| Faecal egg counting: the McMaster method | 5 | |
| Parasitic zoonoses | 5 | |
| Anti-parasitic vaccines | 4 | |
| Skin scrapings | 2 |
Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.
A McMaster count uses 2 g of faeces in 28 mL of flotation solution (total 30 mL). Both chambers (0.30 mL in all) are read and 13 eggs are counted in total. What is the EPG?
D. 650
Factor = 30 ÷ 0.30 ÷ 2 = 50 EPG per egg; 13 × 50 = 650 EPG. 1,300 applies the factor of 100 that belongs to the one-chamber, 4 g method; 325 halves the count again as if both chambers had not been summed; 6.5 divides by 2 g and stops.
Further reading: Zajac et al., Veterinary Clinical Parasitology (9th ed.)
A dog's flotation shows lemon-shaped eggs with a plug at each end. Which genus is most likely?
C. Trichuris
Bipolar plugs on a barrel- or lemon-shaped egg are typical of Trichuris (whipworm). Toxocara eggs are round with a pitted shell, Dipylidium eggs come in packets, and Strongyloides eggs are small and larvated.
Further reading: Zajac et al., Veterinary Clinical Parasitology (9th ed.)
In early tropical theileriosis in a crossbred calf with enlarged prescapular lymph nodes, which sample gives the quickest confirmation?
A. A Giemsa-stained smear of a lymph node aspirate for schizonts
Theileria schizonts (Koch's blue bodies) in lymphocytes are found in lymph node aspirates before piroplasms are numerous in blood. Theileria has no faecal stage, and Knott's test is for microfilariae.
Further reading: Taylor, Coop & Wall, Veterinary Parasitology (4th ed.)
Why is 10% potassium hydroxide sometimes used instead of mineral oil when examining skin scrapings?
A. It clears keratin and hair
KOH digests keratin and clears heavy debris, making mites easier to see, at the cost of losing motility. Mineral oil keeps mites alive. KOH does not stain eggs, and there is no legal requirement. The drawback is that KOH kills the mites.
Further reading: Zajac et al., Veterinary Clinical Parasitology (9th ed.)
Which test is most useful to confirm that flukicide treatment of a cattle herd has removed adult Fasciola within a few weeks?
B. Fasciola coproantigen ELISA on faeces
Coproantigen comes from living flukes and falls within weeks of successful treatment. Antibodies in serum or milk persist for months after cure, so they cannot show treatment success.
Further reading: Taylor, Coop & Wall, Veterinary Parasitology (4th ed.)
The characteristic immune response to gastrointestinal nematodes is:
C. Th2, with IgE, eosinophils and mast cells
Helminths induce a type 2 response that increases mucus, smooth muscle contraction, eosinophils and mast cells. Th1 responses dominate against intracellular protozoa; worms are too large to phagocytose. The key Th2 cytokines are IL-4, IL-5 and IL-13.
Further reading: Tizard, Veterinary Immunology (10th ed.)
Why does freezing not reliably make game meat safe from Trichinella?
B. Certain sylvatic Trichinella species, such as T. nativa, resist freezing
Freeze-resistant species occur in wildlife, especially in cold regions, so thorough cooking is the safe advice for game. Trichinella larvae encyst in muscle, and there is no egg stage.
Further reading: Taylor, Coop & Wall, Veterinary Parasitology (4th ed.)
Using the pre- and post-treatment counts of the same animals, a group's mean falls from 1,000 EPG to 40 EPG. What is the faecal egg count reduction?
A. 96%
FECR = 100 × (1 − T2 ÷ T1) = 100 × (1 − 40 ÷ 1,000) = 96%. 4% is the proportion remaining; 2,400% divides the drop by the post-treatment count ((1,000 − 40) ÷ 40); 99.6% misreads 1,000 as 10,000.
Further reading: WAAVP guidelines (Coles et al. 1992, 2006; Kaplan et al. 2023)
Duddingtonia flagrans is used in integrated nematode control because it:
B. Traps developing larvae in dung after its spores pass through the gut
D. flagrans is a nematophagous fungus; its spores survive gut passage and form traps in faeces that capture free-living larvae, reducing pasture contamination. It does not act on worms inside the host.
Further reading: Taylor, Coop & Wall, Veterinary Parasitology (4th ed.)
Why is larval culture performed alongside a FECRT?
A. To identify which nematode genera survive treatment
Resistance is often genus-specific (for example Haemonchus surviving while Trichostrongylus is removed); the pooled reduction can hide this. Culture to L3 shows which genera remain.
Further reading: WAAVP guidelines (Coles et al. 1992, 2006; Kaplan et al. 2023)
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