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Title: ISOLATION OF SHIGA-TOXIGENIC ESCHERICHIA COLI (STEC) FROM LIVESTOCK PEST FLIES

Author
item Keen, James
item JONES, CARL - UNIV OF TENNESSEE
item GERHARDT, REID - UNIV OF TENNESSEE
item WATSON, DAVID - NORTH CAROLINA STATE
item Hogsette, Jerome - Jerry
item KEEN, DOUG - VET PRACT, WISCONSIN

Submitted to: Research Workers in Animal Diseases Conference Proceedings
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/24/2002
Publication Date: 11/10/2002
Citation: KEEN, J.E., JONES, C.J., GERHARDT, R.R., WATSON, D.W., HOGSETTE, J.A., KEEN, D.P. ISOLATION OF SHIGA-TOXIGENIC ESCHERICHIA COLI (STEC) FROM LIVESTOCK PEST FLIES. RESEARCH WORKERS IN ANIMAL DISEASES CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS. 2002. Abstract No. 71.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Synanthropic pest flies are documented vectors of many human and livestock infections. STEC O157, O111 and O26 are important human food-borne pathogens and cattle are considered primary STEC reservoirs. To investigate the possible role of pest flies in bovine STEC agro-ecology and epidemiology, we live trapped ~14,000 adult house flies, stable flies, and horn flies and simultaneously collected fresh cattle feces on 38 visits to 20 dairy and beef farms in 7 states (AL, FL, IL, NC, NE, TN, and WI) in summer and fall of 2000-01. Pooled flies (by species, ~10 to 30 individual flies per pool) and cattle feces (10 g) were cultured for STEC O157. Overall, 25.2% of 226 house fly pools, 7.6% of 197 stable fly pools, 7.8% of 39 horn fly pools, and 29.2% of 952 bovine fecal samples were STEC O157 culture-positive. House fly and fecal STEC O157 prevalence were positively correlated (rho=0.59, p=0.005) on the 15 farms (31 farm visits) on which house flies were trapped. Furthermore, STEC O157 presence or absence in house flies accurately predicted STEC O157 presence or absence in bovine feces on farms, with positive- and negative-predictive values of 0.94 and 0.77, respectively, and kappa of 0.73. We also isolated STEC O111 and STEC O26 from NE and FL cattle herds, STEC O111 from house flies on WI and NC farms, and STEC O26 from NE house flies. The data suggests that flies may influence or reflect STEC occurrence in cattle.