In vitro hatching of oncospheres of Taenia taeniaeformis using eggs isolated from fresh, frozen, formalin-fixed and ethanol-fixed segments.

In order to establish a simple means of handling eggs of taeniid cestodes under non-biohazardous conditions, gravid segments of Taenia taeniaeformis were fixed in ethanol or formalin or were frozen. In vitro hatching of oncospheres was carried out by the 0.5% sodium hypochlorite method using eggs isolated from the nonviable and viable segments. No oncospheres hatched from formalized eggs, whereas almost all oncospheres hatched from all other eggs but the number of oncospheres recovered was highly variable. Oncospheres hatched from eggs isolated from frozen segments were highly fragile. The highest figures for in vitro hatching of oncospheres were recorded when eggs isolated either from segments fixed in 70% ethanol or from viable segments were used.