title: Colonization of Cimex lectularius with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.
abstract: A recent paper published by Lowe and Romney in Emerging Infectious Diseases titled, Bed bugs as Vectors for Drug-Resistant Bacteria has sparked a renewed interest in bed bug vector potential. We followed a pyrethroid resistant strain of the human bed bug (Cimex lectularius, L.) fed either human blood or human blood with added methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) for 9 days post-feeding. Results indicated that while the bed bug midgut is a hospitable environment for MRSA, the bacteria does not survive longer than 9 days within the midgut. Additionally, MRSA is not amplified within the midgut of the bug as the infection was cleared within 9 days. Due to the weekly feeding behaviours of bed bugs, these results suggest that bed bug transmission of MRSA is highly unlikely.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics & Epidemiology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Alexis M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Barbarin
authors.forename: Baofeng
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Irving
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Nachamkin
authors.forename: Michael Z
authors.initials: MZ
authors.lastname: Levy
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001511:Bedbugs / Q000382:microbiology*; D055624:Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus / Q000302:isolation & purification*