Alharbi Jenan S, Alawadhi Qaderya, Leather Simon R
Science Department, College of Basic Education, Public Authority for Applied Education and Training (PAAET) , Alardyia, PO Box: 23167, Safat, Kuwait.
Crop & Environment Sciences, Harper Adams University, Edgmond, Newport, TF10 8NB, UK.
BMC Res Notes. 2019 Apr 16;12(1):230. doi: 10.1186/s13104-019-4266-4.
Household ants are regarded as a major household pest and their close association with microorganisms and people means that they may constitute a disease risk. Our study is the first to provide information on the pathogenicity of Monomorium spp. a common insect in Kuwait by quantifying and identifying the exoskeleton bacterial burden. Samples of Monomorium were collected in June from indoor and outdoor sites of 30 houses located in two residential districts.
The study identified a total of 16 different species of Gram-negative bacteria of which the indoor isolates were 75% greater in species count than the outdoor samples. Indoor isolates identified from both districts were more frequent than the outdoors and similar trends were obtained for a single district. Outdoor ant samples on the other hand carried a high percentage of bacteria but with less diversity in both districts. There was a significant variability in bacterial species in relation to sample sources, indoor and outdoor, and discrete geographical location. The presence of a high percentage of pathogenic and potentially pathogenic bacteria indoor poses a great threat to domestic households, which would be further exacerbated in places with poor standards of hygiene.
家蚁被视为主要的家庭害虫，它们与微生物和人类的密切关联意味着它们可能构成疾病风险。我们的研究首次通过量化和鉴定外骨骼细菌负荷，提供了关于科威特常见昆虫单型蚁属致病性的信息。6月从位于两个居民区的30所房屋的室内和室外地点采集了单型蚁样本。
该研究共鉴定出16种不同的革兰氏阴性菌，其中室内分离株的物种数量比室外样本多75%。从两个区鉴定出的室内分离株比室外更常见，单个区也获得了类似趋势。另一方面，室外蚂蚁样本携带的细菌比例很高，但两个区的多样性较低。细菌种类在样本来源（室内和室外）以及不同地理位置方面存在显著差异。室内存在高比例的致病和潜在致病细菌对家庭构成了巨大威胁，在卫生标准较差的地方这种威胁会进一步加剧。
