Myiasis in animals and humans: Classification, etiological agents and differential diagnosis. Review

Abstract

Myiasis is a parasitic infestation caused by fly larvae that develop in living or dead vertebrate tissues, affecting both animals and humans. Due to the reintroduction of the New World Screwworm (NWS), Cochliomyia hominivorax, to Mexico, updated information is needed to accurately identify the larvae causing myiasis in animals and humans, as well as to distinguish the types of myiasis: obligate, facultative, and pseudomyiasis. This review includes the main species of dipterans that cause myiasis in Mexico and Latin America, grouped into four families: Calliphoridae (C. hominivorax and C. macellaria, Chrisomya spp., and Lucilia spp.), Sarcophagidae (Sarcophaga spp.), Oestridae (Oestrus ovis, Hypoderma spp., Dermatobia spp., Cuterebra spp., Gasterophilus spp., and Cephenemyia spp.), and Fannidae (Fannia spp.). The study emphasizes on the need for communication among public health, veterinary, and environmental professionals to overcome the diagnostic challenges and prevent myiasis, requiring an interdisciplinary approach for effective myiasis management, especially in endemic rural areas with high human-animal interaction. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).