Medical significance of cockroaches:
Disease transmission
Because of their movement between waste and food materials, cockroaches can acquire, carry, and transfer pathogens. Our recent studies suggest that cockroaches (and house flies) are potentially important agents in the transmission of antibiotic resistant microbes in livestock production systems. Livestock production uses antibiotics therapeutically, but many bacterial agents are also used as prophylactic feed additives and to promote growth, and therefore are common in animal manure and in farm effluents. Because exposure to antimicrobial agents is the most important evolutionary force in the development of antibiotic tolerance, animal production facilities might be significant incubators of resistant bacteria that may affect the human population.
We are screening the gastrointestinal microbial community of German cockroaches from various facilities, including farms and homes, for antibiotic sensitivity to two clinically important bacterial species, Escherichia coli and Enterococcus faecalis.
Recent Collaborations:
Ludek Zurek
Supported by:
US Department of Agriculture - Southern
Regional IPM Program
US Department
of Agriculture - Pest Management Alternatives Program
Blanton J. Whitmire Endowment
W. M. Keck Center for Behavioral
Biology