HWN Suggests

Housefly genome offers clue to human sickness

They enjoy some of the same food that we do, and because they are very good at evading our detection, they get plenty of opportunities to land on it (as well as on us). It is believed that they carry so many pathogens because they feed on liquid or semi-liquid matter - often faeces. Their constant food intake, in turn, means that they need to evacuate large amounts of faeces - along with any pathogens they are carrying - whenever they land for more than a few seconds. Unlike us, they don't get sick from this dirty lifestyle.

read full article

Featured

 Those Pesky House Flies May Actually Improve Our Health

The house fly (Musca domestica) has a genome that could actually give scientists insight into pathogen immunity, helping humans live healthier lives, researchers write in the journal Genome Biology. And it’s all because of their, well, gross-factor. Since the house fly lives on animal and human waste, according to Science Daily, “[t]hey are an important species for scientific study because of their roles as waste decomposers and as carriers of over 100 human diseases, including typhoid, tuberculosis and worms.”

Articles of Interest

A systematic review of human pathogens carried by the housefly (Musca domestica L.)

The synanthropic house fly, Musca domestica (Diptera: Muscidae), is a mechanical vector of pathogens (bacteria, fungi, viruses, and parasites), some of which cause serious diseases in humans and domestic animals.

Flies' disease-carrying potential may be greater than thought, researchers say

Flies can be more than pesky picnic crashers, they may be potent pathogen carriers, too, according to an international team of researchers. Flies may not be all bad, however. The researchers suggest they could turn into helpers for human society, perhaps even serving as living drones that can act as an early-warning system for diseases.

House Flies

House flies are not the neatest of insects. They are suspected of transmitting at least 65 diseases to humans. House flies are strongly suspected of transmitting at least 65 diseases to humans, including typhoid fever, dysentery, cholera, poliomyelitis, yaws, anthrax, tularemia, leprosy, and tuberculosis. Flies regurgitate and excrete wherever they come to rest and thereby mechanically transmit disease organisms.

House Flies and Other Filth Flies

The common house fly is a dull gray fly, ¼-inch long with four dark stripes on the middle section (thorax) of its body. House flies typically lay eggs on animal feces and garbage. White, legless maggots (the larval stage) hatch from the eggs and grow to about ½ inch. When fully grown, maggots crawl away from their food source to undergo the pupal stage. They form a dark brown cocoon, known as a puparium, and later emerge as adult house flies that can fly one or two miles in search of suitable egg-laying sites.

House Flies Are Underappreciated Yet Important Reservoirs and Vectors of Microbial Threats to Animal and Human Health

House flies are well recognized as filth-associated organisms and public nuisances. House flies create sanitation issues when they bridge the gap between microbe-rich breeding environments and animal/human habitations. Numerous scientific surveys have demonstrated that house flies harbor bacterial pathogens that pose a threat to humans and animals. More extensive and informative surveys incorporating next-generation sequencing technologies have shown that house fly carriage of pathogens and harmful genetic elements, such as antimicrobial resistance genes, is more widespread and dangerous than previously thought.

Housefly: Common zoonotic diseases transmitted and control

The Housefly (Musca domestica Linnaeus, 1758) lives in close proximity to humans, posing a variety of health risks. They are mechanical vectors capable of spreading an arraying of infections and annoy humans. More than 100 types of pathogens, including bacterial, viral, and protozoan, are transmitted by houseflies,

How do flies find every stinky garbage dumpster? A biologist explains their sensory superpower

How is it that a fly always seems to be buzzing around your food moments after you sit down for an outdoor meal? The answer is practice. Or, more specifically: evolution. Flies and other insects have been on a multimillion-year journey of evolution, honing their ability to detect food. Being able to zero in on nutritious meals is a matter of life and death. The family of flies that I study – the blow flies – are the buzzing ones that are usually a beautiful metallic blue, with bronze and green colors. They’ve perfected their ability to quickly sense the smells that naturally come off picnics and trash cans because they are a source of food for their offspring, also known as maggots.

How the housefly evades ambush

Despite having some 4,000 lenses in each of their compound eyes, flies have poor vision, but are highly skilled at detecting fast-moving objects. "If you're going to swat a housefly, the way to do it is always from behind," said Dr Wooton, "because ... they rise vertically and backwards, so if you come from behind you have a much better chance."

Is it Safe to Eat Food That a Fly Landed on?

When a fly touches down, it begins exploring the new terrain for food. If it deems the substance meal-worthy, it will regurgitate saliva onto the surface, says Dana Nayduch, a molecular biologist at the US Department of Agriculture. Flies don’t have teeth, so they spurt saliva from a snout-like mouth to liquefy food, which can then be sucked in and swallowed. This process begins minutes or seconds after a fly lands. In addition to regurgitation, the fly might defecate as it explores the new surface.

Should I throw away food once a fly has landed on it?

House flies don’t bite. Unlike mosquitoes that transmit pathogens of human health importance in their saliva, house flies transmit pathogens on their feet and body. As well as leaving behind pathogen-filled footprints, the flies leave their poop on our food. They vomit too.

Study Says It’s Very Bad to Eat Food Flies Have Landed On

If you grew up watching the same cartoons that I did, you know that when you ask the waiter what a fly is doing in your soup, he’s supposed to squint intensely, then shrug and say, “The backstroke.” But, according to scientists, the more accurate response would be “The backstroke, and also spreading even more disgusting bacteria than we previously thought possible.”