Parasitismo por estrongilos en caballos salvajes Venezolanos del hato el frío (Edo. Apure, Venezuela): Estudio preliminar

strongyles are the most common parasites in horses, which can cause serious health problems, even in regularly dewormed horses. there is practically no information in this country on this parasitic infection in wild horses which helminth populations are not influenced by using of antiparasitic drugs. so, the aim of this research was to determinate the caracteristics of strongylidae nematode infection in wild venezuelan horses which have never received anthelmintic therapy, on the basis of coprological examination. study was performed in april 2006 in ？hato el frío？ near to mantecal, state of apure, venezuela. faecal samples were taken from the rectum, once from each of thirty five randomly selected wild horses (21 males, 14 females), representing approximately 15% of the total population of the herd, and processed using the mcmaster modified technique. four cultures of bulked positive samples for identification of strongylidae larvae were also performed. general prevalence was 82.86% (29/35), with a general epg mean of 818,57 epg (0-2,300). from the animals sampled 25,71% showed epg counts between 500-1,000 epg but 37,14% had more than 1,000 epg. strongylus vulgaris was found in 3 out of 4 cultures (75%) in a proportion of 2, 12 and 7%, respectively. strongylus edentatus was found in 1 out of 4 cultures (25%) in a proportion of 2%. there must be remarkable the presence of large strongyles in cultures as well as the important number of animals harboring more than 1,000 epg.