Flies 'n Superbugs It wasn't too surprising. Reuters posted a
story online today about flies spreading drug-resistant
"superbugs" from chicken droppings. Seems that researchers at
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore,
matched bacteria from houseflies and litter from poultry barns
in the Delmarva Peninsula, a coastal region shared by Delaware,
Maryland and Virginia. They published their findings in the
journal Science of the Total Environment Pesearcher Jay Graham
said in a John Hopkins' press release: "Flies are well-known
vectors of disease and have been implicated in the spread of
various viral and bacterial infections affecting humans,
including enteric fever, cholera, salmonellosis,
campylobacteriosis and shigellosis. Our study found similarities
in the antibiotic-resistant bacteria i both the flies and
poultry litter we simpled. The evidence is another example of
the risks associated withthe inadequate treatment of animal
wastes." They cited a Danish study that indicated as many as