Flies May Spread Drug-Resistant Bacteria from Poultry Operations

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.jhsph.edu/publichealthnews/press_releases/2009/graham_flies.html

March 16, 2009

Flies May Spread Drug-Resistant Bacteria from Poultry Operations

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found evidence that houseflies collected near broiler poultry operations may contribute to the dispersion of drug-resistant bacteria and thus increase the potential for human exposure to drug-resistant bacteria. The findings demonstrate another potential link between industrial food animal production and exposures to antibiotic resistant pathogens. Previous studies have linked antibiotic use in poultry production to antibiotic resistant bacteria in farm workers, consumer poultry products and the environment surrounding confined poultry operations, as well as releases from poultry transport.

“Flies are well-known vectors of disease and have been implicated in the spread of various viral and bacterial infections affecting humans, including enteric fever, cholera, salmonellosis, campylobacteriosis and shigellosis,” said lead author Jay Graham, PhD, who conducted the study as a research fellow with Bloomberg School’s http://www.jhsph.edu/Environment/index.html">Center for a Livable Future. Our study found similarities in the antibiotic-resistant bacteria in both the flies and poultry litter we sampled. The evidence is another example of the risks associated with the inadequate treatment of animal wastes.”

“Although we did not directly quantify the contribution of flies to human exposure, our results suggest that flies in intensive production areas could efficiently spread resistant organisms over large distances,” said Ellen Silbergeld, PhD, senior author of the study and professor in the Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Department of Environmental Health Sciences.

Graham and his colleagues collected flies and samples of poultry litter from poultry houses along the Delmarva Peninsula—a coastal region shared by Maryland, Delaware and Virginia, which has one of the highest densities of broiler chickens per acre in the United States. The analysis by the research team isolated antibiotic-resistant enterococci and staphylococci bacteria from both flies and litter. The bacteria isolated from flies had very similar resistance characteristics and resistance genes to bacteria found in the poultry litter.

…

[pleah]

1. That's kind of a no-brainer, since flies are "well-known vectors of desease".

Just saying.

[madrchsod]

2. i had chickens ,ducks, and geese when i lived in the country.

they were free range and i never had "fly problems".

with the new green technology small farms will be the next big thing.

[quidam56]

3. Hospitals are dumping disease on us too, MRSA for one.

Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureaus will be the next AIDS if we don't start addressing it. http://www.wisecountyissues.com It used to be only a hospital acquired disease, now it's common in our schools...emergency rooms are breeding grounds for MRSA.

[OKIsItJustMe]

4. A friend is a hospital pharmicist

A year or so ago he said, "Well, I just saw my first Clindamycin resistant MRSA. (It was just a matter of time.)"

As for hospitals being a vector, yup, there's no doubt about it, but then so are NFL locker rooms:
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/352/5/468

And so is the beach!
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2009/20090213_antibiotic.html

…

Staph: A Beach Going Concern

Research, funded by multiple agencies and conducted by the University of Miami's Rosenstiel's School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences and the Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine, found that swimmers using public ocean beaches increase their risk for exposure to staph organisms, and they may increase their risk for potential staph infections once they enter the water.

"Our study found that if you swim in subtropical marine waters, you have a significant chance, approximately 37 percent, of being exposed to staph — either yours or possibly that from someone else in the water with you," explained Dr. Lisa Plano, a pediatrician and microbiologist with the Miller School of Medicine. Plano collaborated in the first large epidemiologic survey of beach users in recreational marine waters without a sewage source of pollution. "This exposure might lead to colonization or infection by water-borne bacteria which are shed from every person who enters the water. People who have open wounds or are immune-compromised are at greatest risk of infection."

The Miami research team does not advise avoiding beaches, but recommends that beach-goers take precautions to reduce risk by showering thoroughly before entering the water and after getting out. They also point out that while antibiotic resistant staph, commonly known as MRSA, has been increasingly found in diverse environments, including the marine environment, less than three percent of staph isolated from beach waters in their study was of the potentially virulent MRSA variety. More research is needed to understand how long staph (including MRSA) can live in coastal waters, and human uptake and infection rates associated with beach exposures.

…

Last Summer, I went swimming with a horsefly bite. I got a staph infection!