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.

Human intestinal parasites in non-biting synanthropic flies in Ogun State, Nigeria.

Filth-feeding and breeding, non-biting synanthropic flies have been incriminated in the dissemination of human enteropathogens in the environment. This study determined the species of non-biting synanthropic flies associated with four filthy sites in Ilishan, Ogun State, southwest Nigeria, and assessed their potentials for mechanical transmission of human intestinal parasites. 7190 flies identified as Musca domestica (33.