Prevalence and Intensity of Gastrointestinal Parasites in Wild -trapped Pabio anubis and Cercopithecus aethiops in Kenya

Abstract

Gastrointestinal parasite infections by multiple parasite species involving helminths and protozoans occur in non-human primates. The objective of the study was to screen for gastrointestinal parasite infections from sixty five wild-trapped Pabio anubis (olive baboons) and sixty four Cercopithecus aaethiops (African green monkeys) from various locations in Kenya and at the Institute of Primate Research (IPR), Nairobi, in March 2008 to June 2009 to obtain preliminary data as baseline for proposed further study on coccidian parasites. Four faecal samples per individual animal were collected on Mondays and Thursdays for two consecutive weeks and processed for parasitological examination for gastrointestinal parasites. The animals were asymptomatic at the time of faecal sampling. Twelve taxa of intestinal parasites, 5 helminth and 7 protozoan parasites were identified. The helminth genera observed were Oesophagostomum, Trichuris, Strongyloides, Trichostrongylus and Enterobius with species prevalence of 33.6%, 30.4%, 26.2%, 8.8%, 0.8%, 0.4%, and 10.0%, 47.6%, 16.0%, 3.2%, 0.4% for olive baboons and African green monkeys, respectively. The intensity of infections ranged from 0-2350 eggs per gram (epg). Most individuals (56.2%) had mild infections of 1-300 epg and only 8% had egg counts greater or equal to 400. The protozoan parasites identified in this study were Entamoeba coli, Entamoeba histolytica, Cyclospora spp, Cryptosporidia spp, Isospora spp, Iodamoeba butschilii and Paramecium spp with prevalence of 77.3%, 23.1%, 3.8%, 2.7%, 2.2%, 1.2%, 0%, and 76.8%, 23.6%, 63.6%, 6.2%, 0.4%, 0%, 0.4% for olive baboons and African green monkeys, respectively. Majority (63.1%) of the animals had 2-3 parasite infections. Though the infections were asymptomatic in these non-human primates, they harbour important parasites that pose potential danger to public health, livestock and wildlife animals.