Nonbiting Flies and Disease

Abstract

The nonbiting flies are probably responsible for the transmission of the causative agents of many more cases of enteric bacterial infections, of all types, than are biting flies, including mosquitoes. Certainly this is true in the United States where infection rates, if not disease, are low in comparison to those of the rest of the world. From surveys conducted in New Mexico, Georgia, Puerto Rico, and New York City, Watt & Hardy (1) showed that Shigella infections predominated, their studies indicating total reported or estimated annual morbidity rates of 48 per cent in New Mexico, 20 per cent in Georgia, 60 per cent in Puerto Rico, and "markedly less" in New York City. They also found that

Housefly Population Density Correlates with Shigellosis among Children in Mirzapur, Bangladesh: A Time Series Analysis

“…Moreover, manufacture of simple fly traps could become a local cottage industry [42], [43]. Whereas the importance of fly control in reducing the incidence of pediatric diarrhea and dysentery was recognized in the past [14], [15], [19], [31], [36], [37], the modern public health community has not generally embraced fly control efforts as a public health imperative. Our experience instructs that this is largely based on the lack of familiarity with information about the role of flies in the transmission of Shigella (and perhaps other enteric pathogens) and a lack of knowledge of of baited fly traps as an effective, affordable, environmentally-friendly measure to reduce housefly density.…”

“…Houseflies were counted using a Scudder grill device (slats of wood screwed onto a Z-shaped wooden template to create a lattice), allowing counting in a standardized manner as houseflies typically alight on edges (Figure 1) [19]. One fourth of the Scudder grill was painted yellow to allow the flies to stand out visually; the restricted area allowed more practical counting when fly densities were high.…”

Development of Odour-Baited Flytraps for Sampling the African Latrine Fly, Chrysomya putoria, a Putative Vector of Enteric Diseases

“…Whilst it is well known that flies are attracted to edges and corners [19], wire grills placed over or under the trap reduced the number of flies collected in the trap. Presumably flies landed on the grids in preference to resting on the traps.…”

Survey on flies of the genus Musca (Diptera, Muscidae) in the process of construction and development of human settlements in a tropical forest, Indonesia

“…They are known to have high potential for transmitting enteric pathogens such as bacteria, protozoa and helrninth eggs (West, 1951;Lindsay and Scudder, 1956;Greenberg, 1971Greenberg, , 1973 (Harwood and James, 1979 (1980), Paul et al (1989Paul et al ( , 1990, and D'Almeida (1992 …”

“…Entomol, Zool,Vol, 51 No. 1p,(49)(50)(51)(52)(53)(54) (West, 1951;Lindsay and Scudder, 1956; Greenberg, 1971Greenberg, , 1973 The Japan Society of Medical Entomology and Zoology …”