Short communicationThe house fly (Musca domestica) as a potential vector of metazoan parasites caught in a pig-pen in Germany
Introduction
Diptera outrank other insect orders in terms of medical and veterinary significance, being responsible for the transmission of a wide variety of pathogens such as viruses, bacteria, fungi, protozoan and metazoan parasites in humans and animals (e.g. Banjo et al., 2005, Förster et al., 2007). Only a few of the hundreds of fly species are common pests in and around human homes and farms. These insects are important mainly due to their frequent pathogenic properties. Some of the most common nuisance fly species are the house fly (Musca domestica), the face fly (Musca autumnalis), the stable fly (Stomoxys calcitrans) and blowflies (e.g. Lucilia sp. and Sarcophaga sp.). These flies feed on and breed in animal dung, organic waste and carcasses (blowflies) from which they can contain bacteria, viruses and parasites that may cause human and animal diseases (Howard, 2001).
M. domestica is a world-wide distributed pest organism and the dominant synanthropic fly species in animal production, homes and restaurants. The control of the house fly population is a major problem for most livestock farming, caused by the ideal breeding and feeding conditions for the flies around the farm. This fly species has been shown to carry eggs of parasitic helminths (e.g. Ancylostoma caninum, Ascaris lumbricoides, Hymenolepis nana, Hymenolepis diminuta, Taenia spp., Trichuris trichiura) on their body surface under field and laboratory conditions (Rao et al., 1971, Dipeolu, 1977, Dipeolu, 1982, Umeche and Mandah, 1989).
Flies have been demonstrated to transmit pathogens via their mouthparts, through vomits, via faeces, and via their whole body surface. Parasites are taken up by flies, if they have contact with contaminated materials. Therefore the house fly is regarded as an important food contaminator (Patton, 1930). The role of the house fly in the transmission of parasites to pigs is widely underestimated and hardly known.
The aim of the present study was to isolate and identify the metazoan parasites being carried by M. domestica, which were caught at a pig-pen in a rural area of Germany and to evaluate the risk of transmission of parasites by this fly species. The possible transmission of common pig parasites (Ascaris suum and Trichuris suis) by M. domestica was also experimentally examined in the laboratory.
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Materials and methods
Flies were caught during May and September 2007 in a pig-pen at Dormagen, Germany. The place for catching the flies was a pig-pen of an organic farmer. This pig-pen consists of approximately 50 pigs of different ages, from piglets to finishers. The pigs were kept in pairs of 5–10 specimens in big boxes, which were separated by only half-high walls, allowing contact to other pigs. The flies were individually caught with glasses or with commercial plastic bags and immediately transported to the
Results
A total of 224 M. domestica were caught in six collection in a pig-pen and examined for parasites. Four different nematode species and one louse species, were detected on the exoskeletons (exo) and in the intestines (int) of the flies (Table 1; Fig. 1).
In the pig faeces many eggs and larvae of nematodes were isolated (Table 2). A high number of A. suum eggs (61.7% of all found nematode eggs), many Strongylida eggs (20.9%), some eggs of Strongyloides ransomi (13.9%), only a few eggs of T. suis
Discussion
Typical endohelminthic parasites of pigs are the large intestinal roundworm (A. suum), whipworm (T. suis), nodular worm (Oesophagostomum dentatum), threadworm (S. ransomi), kidney worm (Stephanurus dentatus), red stomach worm (Hyostrongylus rubidus) and lungworm (Metastrongylus apri), while the most frequent ectoparasites are the hog louse (Haematopinus suis) and the hog mange mite (Sarcoptes scabiei var. suis) (Roepstorff and Nansen, 1994). In Germany, most pigs are infected with the nematodes
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Wolfgang Lienemann for revising an earlier draft of the manuscript. The present study was financially supported by Novartis Animal Health AG (Switzerland).
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