title: [The role of common starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) in the epidemiology of bacterial, potentially human pathogenic, disease agents].
abstract: Since a long time a public garden in Basel is known as a site for overnight accommodation and assembly of starlings. The birds cause an immense faecal contamination of the park and the neighbouring district. A nursery and a primary school are directly affected. To evaluate the health risk coming from the starlings droppings for the population, particularly for the children and to assess the role of starlings in the transmission of diseases to humans and in the epidemiology of human diseases the presence of human bacterial pathogens in the faeces of starlings was determined. Some of the isolated strains were further typed and compared to strains of human origin. C. jejuni, L. monocytogenes and C. psittaci were most often found. The typing of some C. jejuni and L. monocytogenes isolates showed a great variety of geno-, sero- respectively phage types that did not belong to the strains most often found in isolates of human origin. Starlings can harbour human pathogens and therefore a potential risk of infection comes from their droppings. It seems however rather improbable, that these birds present a constant direct source of infection for human beings.
authors.affiliation: Kantonales Laboratorium, Basel.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gautsch
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Odermatt
authors.forename: A P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Burnens
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bille
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ewald
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000635:transmission*; D001715:Bird Diseases / Q000635:transmission*; D004199:Disease Vectors; D005243:Feces / Q000382:microbiology*; D006801:Humans; D020308:Songbirds