Household Arthropods And Their Associated Bacterial Communities

Considering the ability of arthropods, to act as vectors of pathogens, an understanding of bacterial species associated with household arthropods and hence their significance to public health is also limited. This study aimed to investigate household arthropods in the United Kingdom, exploring their populations in homes located within a 15-mile radius of Birmingham UK over a 12-month period, and to investigate their associated microbial communities. Arthropods were collected by trapping, with light-emitting diode (LED) light flytraps and sticky traps, and by volunteers making active captures. Bacterial communities were explored through culture-based methods and 16S rRNA metabarcoding. In 11 months of collection 2,125 arthropods were
sampled from 19 households that provided results. Diptera were the most abundant arthropods collected, representing 30.1% of the total, followed by Zygentoma (16.2%), Araneae (13.9%) and Collembola (8%). There were 324 bacterial isolates recovered from the arthropods analysed. Of isolates, 48.5% were Gram-positive cocci, followed by Gram-positive rods (24.1%), Gram-negative rods (13.6%) and Gram-negative cocci (5.6%), the remaining represented by filamentous bacteria, yeasts and Gram-negative coccobacilli. The isolates with a high bacterial load were identified, to the species level, revealing the presence of
opportunistic pathogens such as Staphylococcus spp, Acinetobacter spp and Serratia spp. Work is to be developed regarding the epidemiological analyses of culture independent microbiological metabarcoding data, which will assist in informing and prioritizing pest control strategies in housing in relation to public health risks.