Ants as carriers of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in hospitals

Moreira, Denise Madeira; Morais, Verônica de; Vieira‐da‐Motta, Olney; Campos-Farinha, A. E. de C.; Tonhasca, Athayde

doi:10.1590/s1519-566x2005000600017

Cited by 73 publications

(91 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…As in the case of the CNS, this suggests that these insects may be responsible for carrying and distributing GNB bacteria both inside and outside the hospital environment. The 16.7% contamination rate of ants by such bacteria in the hospital was lower than Moreira et al (2005) found and the 66.7% found by Peçanha (2000). TC were found on two occasions in samples collected from the environment, hospital and laboratory.…”

Section: Resultscontrasting

confidence: 55%

“…Out of all the strains isolated from ants found in the hospital, 58.3% were CPS, a very high rate when compared with the 8.3% found by Peçanha (2000) and Moreira et al (2005). It is worth noting that both authors isolated only S. aureus.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 68%

“…Those bacteria were also found on ants of the same species in Campo dos Goytacazes (Moreira et al 2005). Most of the contaminated ants belonging to this genus (75.0%) were collected on the campus, while only one, carrying CPS, was found in the hospital.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 77%

“…Moreira et al (2005) also investigated the presence of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria carried by ants isolated from hospitals and among the bacteria isolates, some were considered multiresistant, including genera Acinetobacter, Streptococcus, Gemella and Klebsiella.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Urban ants and transportation of nosocomial bacteria

Rodovalho¹,

Santos²,

Marcolino³

et al. 2007

Neotrop. entomol.

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Neotropical Entomology 36(3): 454-458 (2007) Formigas Urbanas e o Transporte de Bactérias Nosocomiais RESUMO -Muitas espécies de formigas de comportamento sinantrópico que tiveram sucesso na dispersão em áreas urbanas podem causar problemas em hospitais ao atuarem como vetoras, transportando bactérias. Neste estudo, foram encontradas bactérias em formigas coletadas no Hospital de Clínicas da Universidade Federal de Uberlândia, no campus e em residências próximas. As formigas coletadas foram identificadas como Tapinoma melanocephalum (Fabricius) e Camponotus vittatus (Forel) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) e as cepas bacterianas encontradas pertenciam ao grupo dos estafilococos coagulase positivos, estafilococos coagulase negativos e bacilos gram negativos, tendo sido encontradas cepas resistentes a antimicrobianos. O estudo de bactérias encontradas nas formigas e no ambiente mostrou que algumas formigas carreavam bactérias não isoladas do mesmo ambiente e com níveis de resistência mais elevados, evidenciando o potencial transmissor desses insetos. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Infecção hospitalar, Tapinoma melanocephalum, Camponotus vittatus, vetorABSTRACT -Many ant species displaying synanthropic behavior that have successfully dispersed in urban areas can cause problems in hospitals by acting as bacterial vectors. In this study, we encountered bacteria on ants collected at the Universidade Federal de Uberlândia hospital, in the campus and at households nearby. The ants were identified as Tapinoma melanocephalum (Fabricius) and Camponotus vittatus (Forel) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) and the bacterial strains found here belong to the group of the coagulase-positive staphylococcus, coagulase-negative staphylococcus and gram negative bacilli, including antimicrobial drug-resistant strains. An investigation of the bacteria found in the ants and in the environment revealed that some ants carried non-isolated bacteria from the same environment and with high levels of resistance, evidencing the transmission potential of these insects.

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Section: Resultscontrasting

confidence: 55%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 68%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 77%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Urban ants and transportation of nosocomial bacteria

Rodovalho¹,

Santos²,

Marcolino³

et al. 2007

Neotrop. entomol.

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“…Diferentes autores vêm alertando sobre o papel específi co de insetos no transporte de microrganismos associados a ambientes hospitalares e infecções nosocomiais (Fotedar et al 1991, Daniel et al 1994, Peçanha 2000, Fontana et al 2001. Entre os insetos, o papel das formigas nos hospitais vem sendo cada vez mais discutido (Fowler et al 1993, Bueno & Fowler 1994, Delabie et al 2002, Moreira et al 2005. Estima-se que existem 21.000 espécies de formigas no planeta, sendo que aproximadamente 12.500 já foram descritas, 3.000 no Brasil.…”

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Disseminação de bactérias patogênicas por formigas (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) em dois hospitais do nordeste do Brasil

Fontana¹,

Wetler²,

Aquino³

et al. 2010

Neotrop. entomol.

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-Nosocomial infections bring a high risk to the health of hospital patients and employees. Ants are common organisms in Brazilian hospitals, where they can act as dispersers of opportunistic microorganisms in places they forage. The occurrence of multi-resistant bacteria carried by ants was analyzed in two public hospitals (HA and HB) in southeastern Bahia, Brazil. In these two hospitals 132 workers belonging to three ant species were collected. The bacteria associated to these ants were identifi ed and their susceptibility to antibiotics was evaluated. More than half (57.3%) of ants collected in HA were associated with some kind of bacteria, with 26.7% of them being opportunist bacteria, while 84,2% of the ants from HB presented associated bacteria growth, with 61.4% of them being opportunist bacteria. Twenty four species of bacteria were isolated. The Gram-positive bacilli of the genus Bacillus were the most frequent, followed by the Gram-positive cocci, Gram-negative bacilli (family Enterobacteriaceae) and Gram-negative non-fermenters bacilli. The profi le of sensitivity of the bacterial isolates to drugs pointed out the existence of multi-resistant isolates carried by ants. For the fi rst time, are reported cases of the same bacterial resistant isolates taken form homospecifi c ant workers that point out the importance of ants to bacteria dissemination and proliferation in a hospital. Our results suggest that the risk of contamination presented by these ants is similar to the one of any other mechanical vector of bacterial dissemination.KEY WORDS: Nosocomial infection, public health, urban ant O êxodo contínuo da população mundial rural e o consequente crescimento acelerado dos conglomerados urbanos provocacom frequência, a redução da qualidade sanitária das cidades, acompanhada da proliferação de vetores de inúmeras doenças. O papel de alguns desses vetores já é bem conhecido, como o dos ratos na propagação de zoonoses como a leptospirose e hantavirose, piolhos de Rickettsia spp., pulgas na transmissão de doenças como a peste bubônica e o tifo murino, e mosquitos na transmissão de inúmeras doenças de importância à saúde pública no Brasil, como a malária e a dengue.

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Formicidae, Ants

Pospischil¹

2015

Encyclopedia of Parasitology

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Ants as carriers of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in hospitals

Cited by 73 publications

References 30 publications

Urban ants and transportation of nosocomial bacteria

Urban ants and transportation of nosocomial bacteria

Disseminação de bactérias patogênicas por formigas (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) em dois hospitais do nordeste do Brasil

Formicidae, Ants

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