Background: Zoonoses pose a risk to public health.
Objective: To carry out the investigation of the prevalence of gastrointestinal parasites of baboons,
Papio anubis
, frequenting the Wikki base Camp in Yankari National Park, Nigeria
Method: Formol-ether concentration technique was used to isolate parasite eggs and cysts from faecal samples.
Results: Parasites recovered were
Ascaris lumbricoides
,
Ancylostoma duodenale
,
Strongyloides stercoralis
,
Fasciola
sp,
Schistosoma mansoni
,
Hymenolepis nana
, and
Trichostrongylus
sp, and cysts of protozoan parasites
Entomoeba histolytica
,
E. coli
, and
Iodamoeba butschii
.
Conclusion: Most of the parasites identified are known to have high pathologic involvement in humans, implicating the baboons as potential source and reservoirs for human zoonotic parasitic infections although further molecular work would be necessary to ascertain if these gastrointestinal parasites are the same strains that infect humans
