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// 13 Jul 2007
The common housefly feeds and breeds on all kinds of organic matter, including food, animal feed, garbage, faeces and animal carcasses.
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On farms, houseflies constantly move between dirty areas with pathogens and clean areas, such as feed storage and animal housing. Due to this nature of movement, houseflies have been implicated in the transmission of different types of diseases caused by bacteria, protozoan and viral parasites.Bird flu is no exception
Research conducted at North Carolina State University in the US shows that these houseflies can indeed transmit the AI virus . According to the researchers, ?more than one-third of the adult Musca domestica sampled contained AI virus particles?.
Led by Wes Dawson and James Guy, the researchers said adult flies carried an infectious dose in their gut for more than three hours after feeding. ?This might be important for spread of the virus when fly populations are high and in contact with highly virulent strains,? they explained.
Flies can spread Newcastle Disease
The researchers added that houseflies could also transmit the Newcastle Disease in poultry. They explained that the hazards are focused on housefly feeding or sucking up liquid from putrefying food and feaces supporting high concentrations of pathogen.
To support their point, they noted that houseflies were well established vectors of food poisoning bacteria like Salmonella .
?This is why, more recently, transmission of poultry virus diseases like Newcastle disease and avian influenza by houseflies is considered in addition to spread by direct contact, contaminated feaces and bird secretions."
Related links:
North Carolina State University