Public Health and Medically Important Non-Biting Flies in Hail, Saudi Arabia

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences, Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, Hail University, Hail, Saudi Arabia

2 Department of Zoology and Entomology, Faculty of Science (Boys), AL-Azhar University, Nasr City, Cairo, Egypt

Abstract

The present study was carried out to isolate pathogenic parasites from many non-biting flies, which collected from three sites; restaurants, farms, and abattoir in Hail province, located 5 Km from Hail city, Saudi Arabia. A total of 4 species and 305 non-biting flies were collected and identified as 275 Musca domestica L. (90.2%), 4 Syrphus corollae (1.3%), 16 Chrysomya albiceps (5.2%), 10 Fannia canicularis (3.3%). These flies were examined for isolation of human parasites; the eggs and larvae of the following helminths; 8 Ascaris lumbricoidis (36.4%), 4 Trichuris trichiura (18.1%), 2 Taenia sp.(9.1%), 6 Enterobius vermicularis (27.3%), and 2 Strongyloides stercoralis (9.1%), and the cyst and oocyst of the following protozoa; 14 Entamoeba histolytica (29.8%), 11 Entamoeba coli (23.4%), 6 Giardia lamblia (12.8%), 12 Cryptosporidium sp. (25.5%), and 4 Toxoplasma gondii (8.5%) were isolated from the body surface and gut contents of flies. The isolation of ten human intestinal parasites from the body surface and gut of these non-biting flies indicated that they are mechanical vectors of food-borne diseases and threaten public health.

Keywords