ABSTRACT
Nosocomial infections bring a high risk to the health of hospital patients and employees. Ants are common organisms in Brazilian hospitals, where they can act as dispersers of opportunistic microorganisms in places they forage. The occurrence of multi-resistant bacteria carried by ants was analyzed in two public hospitals (HA and HB) in southeastern Bahia, Brazil. In these two hospitals 132 workers belonging to three ant species were collected. The bacteria associated to these ants were identified and their susceptibility to antibiotics was evaluated. More than half (57.3 percent) of ants collected in HA were associated with some kind of bacteria, with 26.7 percent of them being opportunist bacteria, while 84,2 percent of the ants from HB presented associated bacteria growth, with 61.4 percent of them being opportunist bacteria. Twenty four species of bacteria were isolated. The Gram-positive bacilli of the genus Bacillus were the most frequent, followed by the Gram-positive cocci, Gram-negative bacilli (family Enterobacteriaceae) and Gram-negative non-fermenters bacilli. The profile of sensitivity of the bacterial isolates to drugs pointed out the existence of multi-resistant isolates carried by ants. For the first time, are reported cases of the same bacterial resistant isolates taken form homospecific ant workers that point out the importance of ants to bacteria dissemination and proliferation in a hospital. Our results suggest that the risk of contamination presented by these ants is similar to the one of any other mechanical vector of bacterial dissemination.
Subject(s)
Animals , Ants/microbiology , Bacteria/isolation & purification , Hospitals , Brazil , Cross Infection/microbiology , Cross Infection/transmissionABSTRACT
Os manguezais são comuns ao longo dos estuários da costa Atlântica do Brasil. Embora a diversidade de plantas seja baixa, esse ecossistema suporta uma fauna diversa, oferecendo diferentes tipos de recursos para numerosos organismos não aquáticos. Muitos insetos habitam as áreas de manguezal e, entre estes, numerosas espécies de formigas exclusivamente arbóreas. Na maior parte das áreas do mundo onde ocorrem, os manguezais vêm sofrendo altos níveis de impacto humano e isso é particularmente evidente no Sudeste da Bahia, onde ocorre o tradicional extrativismo de caranguejos e peixes, aterramento com fim de exploração imobiliária e corte de lenha. A comunidade de formigas de 13 manguezais com diferentes níveis de antropização foi estudada na costa sudeste da Bahia, em áreas distribuídas em 250 km de litoral, entre Itacaré e Porto Seguro. As formigas foram amostradas dentro e nas vegetações periféricas dos manguezais, usando lençol entomológico, isca, coleta de galhos ocos e pit-fall. Foram amostradas 108 espécies de formigas, sendo Camponotus e Pseudomyrmex os gêneros com maior riqueza especifica e Azteca e Crematogaster os mais freqüentes. A comunidade de formigas que vivem na vegetação periférica aos manguezais estudados é bastante homogênea mas varia notoriamente com a perturbação antrópica dentro desses ambientes. As riquezas das comunidades da periferia e do próprio manguezal são relacionadas negativamente com o grau de antropização. Comunidades de formigas têm, portanto, potencial para serem utilizadas como indicadores biológicos de impacto ambiental no ecossistema manguezal.
Mangroves are common in estuaries along the Atlantic coast of Brazil. Although plant diversity is low, this ecosystem supports a range of animals, offering some resources for non-aquatic organisms. Many insects live in mangroves and, between them, many ant species that are exclusively arboreous. Mangroves throughout the world suffer from high levels of human impact, and this is particularly true for southeastern Bahia, where land-uses include traditional crab and fish exploitation, urban development, refuse pollution, recreation, and timber extraction. The ants of 13 mangrove sites, representing a range of levels of human use, have been studied along 250 km of the southern Bahia littoral, between Itacaré and Porto Seguro. Ants were sampled both inside and on the periphery of the tidal zone, using entomological rainbow, baiting, collect of hollow branches and pit-fall. A total of 108 species have been collected, with the richest genera being Camponotus and Pseudomyrmex, and the most frequent belonging to the genera Azteca and Crematogaster. The ant community living on the periphery of mangrove areas is rather homogeneous regardless of the degree of environmental perturbation, but varies markedly with the disturbance inside the mangroves themselves. The evolution of richness of the both communities, mangrove and periphery, is negatively related to the human effects, even limited to the periphery. Ant communities therefore have the potential to be useful as biological indicators of ecological impacts of land-use in these mangrove systems.