Detection of some gastrointestinal parasites from four synanthropic flies in Ekpoma, Nigeria.

Synanthropic flies abound in the tropics especially in areas with substandard environmental sanitary conditions. Here, they constitute serious public nuisance. These flies through their filthy breeding habits, feeding mechanisms and indiscriminate travel, between filth and food, make some groups of these synanthropic insects such as non-biting flies as efficient vectors of human enteric protozoan parasites1. In other parts of the globe, information on the occurrence of veterinary and medically important parasitic agents, nonbiting flies such as Musca domestica exists2–11. Despite the abundance of filth flies in our locality, there is dearth of information on their role as mechanical transmitters of parasitic infections. This paper, apart from enriching the only existing information on this subject in other parts of Nigeria12-15, reports for the first time the association of ten parasites and synanthropic flies in Ekpoma, Nigeria.