Article

[The role of common starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) in the epidemiology of bacterial, potentially human pathogenic, disease agents].

Kantonales Laboratorium, Basel.
SAT Schweizer Archiv für Tierheilkunde (impact factor: 0.6). 05/2000; 142(4):165-72. pp.165-72
Source: PubMed

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.

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  • Article: Escherichia coli, Salmonella, and Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis in wild European starlings at a Kansas cattle feedlot.
    Shannon M Gaukler, George M Linz, Julie S Sherwood, Neil W Dyer, William J Bleier, Yvonne M Wannemuehler, Lisa K Nolan, Catherine M Logue
    [show abstract] [hide abstract]
    ABSTRACT: The prevalence of Escherichia coli, Salmonella spp., and Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis isolated from the feces of wild European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) humanely trapped at a feedlot in central Kansas was assessed. All E. coli and Salmonella isolates recovered were tested for antimicrobial susceptibility using National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System panels and the E. coli isolates were classified as to their content of genes associated with pathogenic E. coli of birds and cattle, including cvaC, iroN2, ompTp, hlyF2, eitC, iss, iutA, ireA, papC, stxI, stxII, sta, K99, F41, and eae. Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis were not detected and Salmonella was isolated from only three samples, two of which displayed antimicrobial resistance. Approximately half of the E. coli isolates were resistant to antimicrobial agents with 96% showing resistance to tetracycline. Only one isolate was positive for a single gene associated with bovine pathogenic E. coli. An interesting finding of this study was that 5% of the E. coli isolates tested met the criteria established for identification as avian pathogenic E. coli (APEC). Thus these findings suggest that starlings are not a significant source of Salmonella spp., Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis, E. coli O157, or other shiga toxin-producing E. coli in this feedlot. However, they may have the potential to spread APEC, an important pathogen of poultry and a potential pathogen to human beings.
    Avian Diseases 12/2009; 53(4):544-51. · 1.46 Impact Factor
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Keywords

birds cause
 
birds present
 
C. jejuni
 
C. psittaci
 
constant direct source
 
faeces
 
geno-
 
great variety
 
health risk
 
human bacterial pathogens
 
humans
 
immense faecal contamination
 
isolated strains
 
L. monocytogenes
 
neighbouring district
 
primary school
 
public garden
 
Starlings
 
starlings droppings
 
strains
 

S Gautsch