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Flies and Salmonella: A Bad Combo in Poultry
Houses
By Sharon
Durham
March 19, 2008 Flies may be more than a mere
nuisance. They may also spread food poisoning bacteria like Salmonella
enteritidis to chickens and their eggs.
Agricultural Research Service (ARS)
microbiologist
Peter
S. Holt and entomologist
Christopher
J. Geden found that the common housefly, Musca domestica, readily
picks up bacteria from its surroundings. When the chickens eat the flies, the
bacteria get inside the birds. Holt works in the
Egg
Safety and Quality Research Unit at the ARS
Richard
B. Russell Research Center in Athens, Ga., while Geden is at the ARS
Center
for Medical, Agricultural and Veterinary Entomology in Gainesville, Fla.
ARS is the U.S. Department of
Agriculture's chief scientific research agency.
In three experiments, Holt placed chickens in individual, adjacent laying
cages. Geden delivered fly pupae just 48 hours short of hatching as flies; this
timing ensures the flies aren't exposed to any microbe prior to emergence. The
fly pupae were placed in an open box in the bird room. Three days later, hens
were orally infected with Salmonella.
The researchers detected the bacteria in and on 45 to 50 percent of the
flies within the first 48 hours of the flies' hatching.
Next, uninfected hens were exposed to the newly infected flies. Just being
around the flies didn't cause healthy birds to become infected, but eating
infected flies did. This showed that simple physical contact may not be the
primary method of transfer of Salmonella bacteria to different surfaces
in a poultry house. But, according to the researchers, a hen's eating of
contaminated flies does seem to be the primary mechanism of transmission of
Salmonella from flies to birds.
According to Holt, this shows that flies in poultry houses are not only a
nuisance, but also a threat to the safety of poultry products.
Read
more about the research in the March 2008 issue of Agricultural
Research magazine.