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ViewAttendees 4

10-Minute Paper

Medical, Urban, and Veterinary Entomology

MUVE: Vector Physiology, Biology, and Ecology 2

House flies as reservoirs, disseminators and sentinels of microbial threats to livestock and humans

Tuesday, November 7, 2023
1:36 PM – 1:48 PM ET
Location: Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, National Harbor 2
In-Person
House flies (Musca domestica L.) are ubiquitous insects that acquire microbes from sources such as garbage, manure, livestock and agricultural waste. Flies are reservoirs and disseminators of these microbes, bridging the gap between filth and other environments where animals or humans may reside. Our group has demonstrated that house flies from urban, suburban and agricultural niches carry a wide variety of bacterial taxa, including pathogens and those harboring antimicrobial resistance (AMR) genes. House flies therefore play a crucial but potentially underappreciated role in disease or AMR transmission and pose significant risks to public and animal health. However, house flies also may prove valuable as sentinels for monitoring these same microbial threats which can be accomplished through extensive molecular or culture-based surveys of their microbial communities. This type of surveillance could be used as a predictive tool to monitor and prevent microbial threats prior to disease outbreaks.