A study of human and porcine Ascariasis in a rural area of South-West Nigeria.

In a study conducted in the rural town of Eruwa on the role of pigs in the epidemiology of human Ascaris infection, adults of Ascaris lumbricoides were recovered from individuals and pigs living in close contact within the households and sharing common refuse dumps for defaecating and scavenging. An attempt to infect clean piglets experimentally with A. lumbricoides from infective egg stages which were cultured from the eggs recovered from the human faeces failed as no eggs were shed by the piglets 42 days after experimental feeding. Survey of faeces of humans and pigs in sampled households in the town had earlier showed that Ascaris is endemic in the human and pig populations.