We were not able to identify any peaks corresponding to unique oocyst wall components, for example, specific fatty acids, hydrocarbons and fatty alcohols, as reported by Jenkins et al. . However, their concentration may be too low to resolve from other fatty acids, hydrocarbons and fatty alcohols predominant in the oocysts. Also, the Raman spectra of individual fatty acids have significant overlap , so it is not possible to resolve these as the signal from phosphatidylcholine masks the others.