Reduction of bacterial pathogens in poultry manure by Musca domestica fly larvae

Summary

Adult flies are potential carriers of various microbiological pathogens due to their attraction to animal manure. The common house fly (Musca domestica) place their eggs on the surface of fresh manure and the hatched larvae undergoes three larval stages inside. Whether pathogenic microorganism from the manure may colonize the larva gut and ensure transmission to the adult fly is not known as larvae also nourishes on certain bacteria. In this study we monitored the effect of adding M. domestica fly larvae to poultry manure spiked with different test strains (E. coli, S. Enteritidis and C. jejuni), and followed the quantitative changes in manure, larvae and pupae as well as in the adult fly.