Comparing the Bacterial Flora of Insectary and Filed Strains of Supella longipalpa (Blattaria: Ectobiidae) and their Antibiotic Resistant Pattern in Qom Province, Central Iran

Cockroaches play a role in the mechanical transmission of microbial pathogens. This study was designed to determine the isolated bacteria and their susceptibility to conventional antibiotics from brown-banded cockroach, Supella longipalpa, in Qom province, central Iran.

In this cross-sectional study, brown-banded cockroaches were bred in an insectary and caught from hospitals of Qom. The samples were taken from the surface and alimentary canal and then cultured on microbial culture media; next, grown specimens were identified using differential culture media. Finally, after performing diagnostic tests and identifying the bacteria species, their susceptibility to various antibiotics was evaluated.

A total of 120 adult cockroaches from the insectary and hospitals were included in the study. Ten bacterial genera were found; nine were Gram-negative and one was Gram-positive. The genus Klebsiella, Enterobacter, Staphy lococcus, Citrobacter and Hafnia were isolated only from the hospital strain. On the other hand, Pseudomonas and Escherichia from both groups and other species such as Salmonella, Proteus and Shigella were isolated only from la boratory strains. The highest antibiotic resistance among Gram-positive cocci and Gram-negative bacilli were 100.0% and 98.1% for ampicillin and Ceftazidime, respectively.

The results of this study showed that various pathogenic bacteria harbored by brown-banded cockroaches. Moreover, it was found that most of these bacteria belong to the Enterobacteriaceae family, which can be pathogenic and thus threaten human health.