Carriage of multi‐drug resistant gram‐negative pathogenic bacteria by the house fly musca domestica

Abstract

Fifteen house flies were used to isolate bacteria from external body surface
and alimentary tract. A total of 50 isolates were obtained from the house flies, of
which 25 (50%) were collected from the external body surface and 25 (50%) from
alimentary gut. Fifteen isolates (30%) were obtained from Shamsunnahar Hall
(SN) dining room, 22 (44%) from Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) and
13 (26%) from Rokeya Hall (RH) canteen. Six Gram‐negative bacteria were
isolated from the house flies namely, Escherichia coli (36%), Shigella spp. (22%),
Salmonella spp. (18%), Pseudomonas spp. (10%), Klebsiella spp. (8%) and
Enterobacter spp. (6%). E. coli was the highest in number in all three study areas
which was 33% in SN Hall dining, 36% in DMCH, and 39% in RH canteen. E. coli
was present in 32 and 40% of external body surface and gut samples,
respectively. Bacterial susceptibility to antimicrobial agents showed that E. coli
isolates were highly resistant (66‐77.7%) to ampicillin, ciprofloxacilin and
penicillin antibiotics. Salmonella isolates were sensitive to chloramphenicol but it
was (55.5%) resistant to ampicillin, penicillin, tetracycline, gentamycin and
imipenem antibiotics. In case of Shigella and Pseudomonas, 72.72 and 80% isolates
were resistant to tetracycline and chloramphenicol, respectively. Among the
Enterobacter spp. 66.66% were resistant to chloramphenicol, imipenem,
vancomycin and tetracycline, while Klebsiella showed 100% resistant pattern to
tetracycline in the study. It was observed that house flies carry several multidrug
resistant Gram‐negative bacteria in their body surface and alimentary tract
and played a role in the transmission of serious diseases to human.