Ants in a hospital environment and their potential as mechanical bacterial vectors

Lima, Wanda Ramos dos Santos; Marques, Sirlei Garcia; Rodrigues, Fernanda Souto; Rebêlo, José Manuel Macário

doi:10.1590/0037-8682-1607-2013

Acessibilidade / Reportar erro

Brasil

Revista da Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical

Español English

Brasil

Español English

sumário « anterior atual seguinte »

Sumário

Short Communications • Rev. Soc. Bras. Med. Trop. 46 (5) • Sept-Oct 2013 • https://doi.org/10.1590/0037-8682-1607-2013 copy

Ants in a hospital environment and their potential as mechanical bacterial vectors

Authorship SCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

Introduction

We studied the richness and abundance of ant species, their bacteria and the bacteria isolated from patient clinical samples.

Methods

Ants were collected with baited traps at 64 sites in a public hospital in São Luis, State of Maranhão, Brazil.

Results

In total, 1,659 ants from 14 species were captured. The most frequent species were Crematogaster victima, Solenopsis saevissima, Tapinoma melanocephalum, Camponotus vittatus and Paratrechina fulva. Forty-one species of bacteria were isolated from the ants and 18 from patients.

Conclusions

Ants are potential vehicles for pathogenic and opportunistic bacteria, and they can represent a risk factor in nosocomial infections.

Urban ants; Vectors of nosocomial infection; Formicidae

Species	Seasons		Total
Species	rainy	dry	Cp	Ex	Po	Pr
Acromyrmex rugosus	7	7	14	5	1	20.0
Atta sp.	21	-	21	7	6	85.7
Camponotus atriceps	14	76	90	37	11	29.7
Camponotus vittatus	3	5	8	8	4	50.0
Camponotus sp.	4	3	7	6	5	71.4
Crematogaster victima victim	106	572	678	61	26	42.6
Linepithema sp.	-	2	2	1	1	100.0
Odontomachus haematodus	2	5	7	3	1	33.3
Paratrechina fulva	35	25	60	59	26	44.1
Pheidole sp. 1	71	246	317	123	59	48.0
Pheidole sp. 2	4	-	4	2	1	50.0
Solenopsis saevissima	55	276	331	207	55	26.6
Solenopsis sp.	3	3	6	3	1	33.3
Tapinoma melanocephalum	47	67	114	98	46	46.9
Individuals (number)	372	1,287	1,659	620	243	39.2
Individuals (percentage)	22.4	77.6	100.0	37.4	39.2	-

Bacteria	Ants				Patients
	seasons		total		seasons		total
	rainy	dry	n	%	rainy	dry	n	%
Staphylococcus coagulase-negative	14	33	47	22.4	36	53	89	20.5
Acinetobacter baumannii	17	27	44	21.0	20	51	71	16.4
Acinetobacter lwoffii	10	19	29	13.8	-	2	2	0.5
Staphylococcus aureus	12	14	26	12.4	13	26	39	8.9
Enterobacter cloacae	8	8	16	7.6	2	6	8	1.8
Klebsiella pneumonia	-	11	11	5.2	17	40	57	13.1
Pantoea agglomerans	4	2	6	2.9	-	4	4	0.9
Stenotrophomonas maltophilia	-	5	5	2.4	3	4	7	1.6
Enterobacter aerogenes	1	4	5	2.4	9	10	19	4.4
Pseudomonas aeruginosa	2	3	5	2.4	31	51	82	18.9
Escherichia coli	2	2	4	1.9	9	9	18	4.1
Enterococcus faecalis	2	1	3	1.4	3	-	3	0.7
Enterococcus faecium	1	1	2	0.9	-	1	1	0.2
Kluyvera sp.	1	1	2	0.9	-	1	1	0.2
Burkholderia cepacia	2	-	2	0.9	-	3	3	0.7
Serratia marcescens	1	-	1	0.5	6	-	6	1.4
Providencia stuartii	-	1	1	0.5	4	4	8	1.8
Proteus mirabilis	1	-	1	0.5	7	9	16	3.9
Ant bacteria (number of positive samples)	78	132	210	100.0	160	274	434	100.0
Species (number)	15	15	18	-	13	16	18	-

	Area	Seasons		Total
	Area	rainy	dry	n	%
1^st floor	Garden	282	1,127	1,409	90.5
	Solid waste disposal area	34	60	94	6.0
	Laundry	30	20	50	3.2
	Kitchen	1	3	4	0.3
	total	347	1,210	1,557	93.9
2^nd floor	Clinical pathology laboratory	2	-	2	10.5
	Sterilization center	-	1	1	5.3
	Medical center ward 13	1	-	1	5.3
	Medical center ward 28	7	8	15	78.9
	total	10	9	19	5.0
3^rd floor	Pharmacy	-	7	7	8.4
	General intensive care unit	6	6	12	14.5
	Cardiac intensive care unit	1	4	5	6.0
	Operating rooms	1	-	1	1.2
	Surgical clinic ward 17	5	29	34	41.0
	Surgical clinic ward 4	2	22	24	28.9
	total	15	68	83	11.1
Total		372	1,287	1,659	-

Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical - SBMT Caixa Postal 118, 38001-970 Uberaba MG Brazil, Tel.: +55 34 3318-5255 / +55 34 3318-5636/ +55 34 3318-5287, http://rsbmt.org.br/ - Uberaba - MG - Brazil
E-mail: rsbmt@uftm.edu.br

Acompanhe os números deste periódico no seu leitor de RSS

[1] Address to: Dr. José Manuel Macário Rebêlo. Laboratório de Entomologia e Vetores/Dept^o de Patologia/UFMA. Praça Madre Deus 2, 65025-560 São Luis, MA, Brasil. Phone/Fax: 55 98 4248-2929. e-mail: macariorebelo@uol.com.br