Fil: Guarnera, Eduardo. ANLIS Dr.C.G.Malbrán. Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Infecciosas. Departamento de Parasitología Sanitaria; Argentina.Fil: Santillan, Graciela. ANLIS Dr.C.G.Malbrán. Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Infecciosas. Departamento de Parasitología Sanitaria; Argentina.Fil: Botinelli, R. Universidad Nacional del Noroeste. Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias. Patología Comparada y Salud Pública; Corrientes, Argentina.Fil: Franco, A. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias. Veterinaria en Salud Pública; Argentina.The essential activities for programmes of cystic echinococcosis control are the census of all dogs from the program and identification of parasitised animals. Currently, in South America evaluations and epidemiological surveillance are based on the administration of arecoline hydrobromide. This method has the disadvantage of increasing environmental pollution and risk for operators and owners of treated dogs. A genus-specific ELISA capture method has been employed for recently issued faeces and the confirmation of positive examination was performed by dog autopsies. Our work presents an alternative method based on collection of dry field-dispersed faeces, followed by serological diagnosis by Copro-ELISA and confirmation by Copro-Western blot. If Copro-ELISA were used to define positive samples of dry faeces, the Copro-Western blot assay would provide 70% sensitivity and 100% specificity. Global efficiency of the system using dry faeces would reach 76%, allowing epidemiological surveillance to be oriented to analysis of surface units instead of dog as measurement unit.