Studies on the potential and public health importance of non-biting synanthropic flies in the mechanical transmission of human enterohelminths.

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.