faecalis strains and B) 19 E. faecium strains isolated from swine manure (SM), house flies (HF), and German cockroaches (GC) from one commercial swine farm. The scale indicates the level of pattern similarity. Discussion The worldwide increase in the emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance has become a major public

health concern, with economic, social and political ramifications. Clearly, the prevalence of antibiotic resistant bacteria in the gastro-intestinal microbial communities of domestic food animals and their feces/manure has become high in the United States likely due to extensive use of antibiotics Thiazovivin in food selleck chemicals llc animal production [3, 6, 10, 34–36]. Although a connection between antibiotic resistance in bacterial

isolates from healthy food animals and clinical isolates of human and animal origins has been suggested, this is a controversial issue because little is known about the amplification and spread of antibiotic resistant bacteria and genes in the environment [12–14, 16, 37–41]. The two groups of insects most frequently screened for food borne-pathogens are house flies and cockroaches. These insects have been implicated as mechanical or biological vectors for bacterial pathogens including Salmonella spp., Campylobacter spp; Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Listeria spp., Shigella spp ., Aeromonas spp ., Yersinia pseudotuberculosis, Escherichia Vistusertib in vitro coli O157:H7, and E. coli F18 that can cause diseases in humans and/or animals [17, 18]. Multi-antibiotic resistant enterococci have been reported from house flies collected from fast-food restaurants [19]. In addition, the horizontal transfer of tet(M) among E. faecalis in the house fly digestive tract as well as the great capacity of house flies to contaminate human food with enterococci have been demonstrated [42, 43]. Organic wastes in and around animal production facilities Methane monooxygenase including swine farms provide excellent habitats for house flies and German cockroaches. Several features of house flies and cockroaches,

including their dependence on live microbial communities, active dispersal ability and human-mediated transport, attraction to places where food is prepared and stored, developmental sites, and mode of feeding/digestion make these insects an important “”delivery vehicle”" for transport of bacteria including antibiotic resistant enterococci from reservoirs (animal manure), where they pose minimal hazard to people, to places where they pose substantial risk (food) [17, 18, 44]. Several reports showed a positive correlation between the incidence of food-borne diarrhea and the density of house fly or cockroach populations. For example, suppression of flies in military camps in the Persian Gulf resulted in an 85% decrease in Shigellosis and a 42% reduction in the incidence of other diarrheal disease [45]. Esrey [46] reported a 40% reduction in the incidence of diarrheal infections in children after suppression of a fly population.