RCVS Certificate in Advanced Veterinary Practice (CertAVP) · UK · RCVS, with modules through accredited universities
Original practice questions written to the published syllabus · not past papersRCVS Certificate in Advanced Veterinary Practice (CertAVP) is a professional certification run by RCVS, with modules through accredited universities, for candidates in UK. Modular postgraduate certificate: 1 A module, 1 B module and 4 C modules. Designated certificates carry a synoptic oral exam.
Source: rcvs.org.uk.
Checked against the exam body's published information. Formats and fees change; confirm the current edition there before you book.
Host-parasite relationships and the flukes, tapeworms and roundworms of domestic animals: their life cycles, damage, diagnosis and control, and the growing problem of anthelmintic resistance.
Our 17 RCVS Certificate in Advanced Veterinary Practice questions in this subject: 0 easy, 10 medium, 7 hard, across 9 units.
Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.
These 10 were written to RCVS Certificate in Advanced Veterinary Practice and are not shown on any other exam's page.
A dairy herd has chronic fasciolosis. Which test best shows whether a flukicide treatment has removed current infection, rather than merely showing past exposure?
C. Faecal coproantigen ELISA before and after treatment
Coproantigen falls after flukes are killed, so a before-and-after comparison shows efficacy. Antibodies persist for months after cure, so serum or bulk milk antibody results reflect exposure, not current infection. Pepsinogen relates to abomasal damage.
A hydatid control programme treats farm dogs with praziquantel. The dog prepatent period of E. granulosus is about six to seven weeks. What treatment interval interrupts egg shedding?
A. Every 6 weeks or less
Treatment must recur before newly acquired worms become patent, so the interval must be shorter than the prepatent period. Island programmes used intervals of about six weeks. Three-monthly treatment allows weeks of egg shedding between doses.
A client blames poor lamb growth on visible Moniezia segments. What is the most defensible advice?
A. Check faecal egg counts for nematodes, since Moniezia is often blamed for losses caused by nematodes
Most Moniezia infections cause few signs and the importance of the parasite is debated; visible segments distract from the real, usually nematode, problem. There is no Moniezia vaccine, and frequent treatment adds cost and selection pressure.
A lamb carries 3,000 Haemonchus contortus. Using the textbook blood loss of 0.05 mL per worm per day, daily blood loss is about:
A. 150 mL
3,000 worms × 0.05 mL = 150 mL per day. 15 mL comes from a decimal slip (0.005), 1,500 mL from multiplying by 0.5, and 1,050 mL is the weekly (150 × 7), not daily, loss. At 150 mL a day a lamb loses about a litre a week, explaining rapid death.
Why is doxycycline included in many canine heartworm treatment protocols?
D. It targets Wolbachia endosymbionts, weakening worms and reducing inflammation and transmission
Wolbachia is needed by the worm for development and reproduction; doxycycline reduces it, weakening worms and reducing larval development in mosquitoes. The adulticide is melarsomine.
A yearling steer has severe watery diarrhoea in late winter, faecal egg count of 100 EPG, hypoalbuminaemia and very high plasma pepsinogen. The low egg count is best explained by:
B. The disease is caused by larvae emerging from arrest, which do not yet lay eggs
Type II ostertagiosis is caused by emerging larvae; egg output lags, so counts may be low despite severe disease. Pepsinogen and history point to abomasal damage, not fluke.
A sheep excretes 1,200 EPG and passes about 1.2 kg of faeces a day. Approximately how many eggs does it deposit on pasture daily?
A. About 1.44 million
1.2 kg = 1,200 g; 1,200 g × 1,200 EPG = 1,440,000 eggs. 1,440 comes from forgetting to convert kg to g; 1.44 billion from converting kg to mg instead of g; 1,000 from dividing 1,200 by 1.2 instead of multiplying. The figure explains how a few carriers contaminate pasture.
Ten lambs have pre-treatment counts (EPG) of 600, 1200, 900, 300, 1500, 700, 1100, 800, 400 and 1000, and post-treatment counts of 50, 100, 0, 0, 150, 50, 100, 0, 50 and 100. Using arithmetic means, the FECR is closest to:
A. 92.9%
Pre mean = 8,500 ÷ 10 = 850 EPG; post mean = 600 ÷ 10 = 60 EPG. FECR = 100 × (1 − 60/850) = 92.9%; 7.1% is the surviving fraction (60/850), 99.3% divides the post-treatment mean by the pre-treatment total (60/8,500), and 14.2% is the fold-reduction (850 ÷ 60) read as a percentage. Under the 1992 WAAVP criterion (< 95%), resistance is suspected, and a proper analysis would add confidence limits. The current 2023 WAAVP FECRT guideline uses host- and drug-specific thresholds, minimum egg counts and an 'inconclusive' category instead.
A 450 kg cow is to receive ivermectin 1% injection (10 mg/mL) at 0.2 mg/kg subcutaneously — confirm against the product label and your national formulary. What volume is needed?
D. 9 mL
Dose = 450 × 0.2 = 90 mg; 90 mg ÷ 10 mg/mL = 9 mL. 90 mL comes from confusing mg with mL; 0.9 mL from treating 1% as 100 mg/mL; 4.5 mL from using 1 mL per 100 kg instead of 1 mL per 50 kg.
A group of ewes weighs 38–52 kg. A benzimidazole drench labelled at 5 mg/kg contains 25 mg/mL. What dose volume should all ewes in the group receive to avoid underdosing?
A. 10.4 mL, dosing to the heaviest ewe
Dose to the heaviest: 52 kg × 5 mg/kg = 260 mg; 260 ÷ 25 = 10.4 mL. Dosing to the average (45 kg → 9 mL) or the lightest (38 kg → 7.6 mL) underdoses the heavier ewes, and underdosing selects for resistance. 5.2 mL halves the dose (1 mL per 10 kg instead of per 5 kg). Where weights vary widely, split the group.
This plan follows where our questions actually fall, so the time goes where the marks are likely to be. It is our reading of the syllabus, not the exam body's weighting.
Read the manual chapters for these first and do every worked question you can find on them.
Aim for one sitting per unit, then mixed questions across them.
Learn the definitions, classifications and standard numbers; these units are more often recalled than worked.
Come back to these after a first pass, untimed, and read every explanation, including for the options you rejected.
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