Question

How do houseflies carry disease-causing microbes? (or pathogens)

Answer 1

Hint:-The most common method of disease transmission by housefly are:
- By using contaminated cooking and eating utensils.
- By consuming contaminated food and water.
- By direct contact through touching an infected person.

Complete step-by-step solution:-
The houseflies are responsible for spreading bacterial diseases and infectious diseases to humans. They don’t bite us but they can carry deadly infections with them. Houseflies carry up to 100 different kinds of diseases. House flies spread microorganisms such as Salmonella bacteria by just picking it and placing them on the uncovered food. The house flies transmit the diseases directly to the humans.
The house flies carry pathogens or vectors on their legs, mouth and small hair of the body while laying the eggs on the garbage, feces, animals excrete and other waste, they collect pathogens. These pathogens get transferred to the food and the food gets contaminated. This food when consumed with the person, he will get infected.
WHO (World Health Organization) report says that houseflies are capable of transmitting at least 65 diseases to humans including diarrhoeal diseases and it can be skin and eye infections. Most commonly and life-threatening diseases caused by houseflies are as follows: -
- Dysentery
- Cholera
- Salmonellosis
- Gastroenteritis
- Conjunctivitis
- Shigellosis
- Tuberculosis
- Typhoid fever

Additional information:
The areas which are quite close to the animal products are in higher risk of spreading foodborne diseases. House Flies can spread the diseases in two ways –
- Feeding habits
- Breeding habits
Houseflies don’t have teeth and mouth or not even stingers to bite or chew the food. They have a long tongue known as proboscis to feed on liquid and semi-liquid food. When house flies sit on solid food, they add saliva or digestive juices which breaks down the solid food in liquid and semi liquid food so that they can easily consume it easily. During this process any microorganisms such as bacteria or protozoa can be transmitted to the food item and can infect the items they defecate on.
Houseflies mostly breed on dirty places such as-
- Garbage
- Decaying organic materials
- Rotting fruits and vegetables
- Solid waste in open drain

Note:- The spreading of diseases by houseflies can be controlled by:
- By using repellants
- By throwing garbage in covered garbage bin
- By checking breeding of houseflies in stagnant water