%0 Journal Article
%T Studies on the potential and public health importance of non-biting synanthropic flies in the mechanical transmission of human enterohelminths.
%A Adenusi AA
%A Adewoga TO
%J Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg
%V 107
%N 12
%D Dec 2013
%M 24128876
%F 2.455
%R 10.1093/trstmh/trt095
%X BACKGROUND: This study was aimed at examining the potential of non-biting synanthropic filth flies to acquire naturally eggs of human intestinal helminths from unsanitary sites, and its attendant public health importance.
METHODS: Body surface washings and gut contents of flies caught foraging while infected human faeces lay exposed at a garbage dump in Iperu, Ogun State, Nigeria and within 24 hours subsequently after removal of faeces from the dump were examined parasitologically by the formol-ether concentration technique. The viability of helminth eggs isolated from flies was determined by incubation under laboratory conditions.
RESULTS: A total of 303 flies were examined: Musca domestica (107; 35.3%), Chrysomya megacephala (125; 41.3%) and Musca sorbens (71; 23.4%). Eggs of Ascaris lumbricoides and Trichuris trichiura isolated from exposed human faeces were recovered from the body surfaces and or gut contents of flies caught before (141; 77.5%) and after removal of exposed faeces (44; 36.4%). Eggs of Taenia sp. were isolated only from the gut contents of three C. megacephala flies caught after removal of exposed faeces. Significantly more (p<0.05) eggs were recovered from fly gut contents than body surfaces and from flies caught before than after removal of exposed faeces. 93.1% (552; from exposed faeces) and 57.4% (408; from flies) of A. lumbricoides and T. trichiura eggs were viable.
CONCLUSIONS: Synanthropic flies may, because they carry viable eggs acquired naturally from unsanitary sites, be involved in the epidemiology of human intestinal helminthiases.