Detection of pathogen foodborne disease bacteria Staphylococcus aureus from German Cockroach (Blattella germanica) in the hospital area

Abstract

The German cockroach (Blattella germanica) is a pest often found in apartments, houses, food-handling areas, hospitals, and healthcare facilities in Indonesia. It searches for food in dirty places such as trash cans, sewers, and septic tanks. The cockroach will feed on almost anything, including fecal matter and food for humans. So, this habit causes the German cockroach can act as a vector for several pathogenic bacteria and increases the risk of various health problems, such as foodborne diseases. One of the bacteria that cause foodborne disease is Staphylococcus aureus because these bacteria can produce toxins that cause intoxication in food. So the purpose of this study was to detect the presence of Staphylococcus aureus on cockroaches’ body surface and digestive tract. The sample of cockroaches was collected by jar trap from a hospital environment in Purwokerto (Central Java, Indonesia). The bacteria isolates were confirmed by selective medium to ensure that the isolated bacteria were S. aureus bacteria. The results showed that 26 isolates were successfully isolated from the body surface, and 21 isolates were successfully isolated from the digestive tract of the German cockroach. From these isolates, it was found that 11.53% of the isolates came from the body surface of the German cockroach, and 14.28% of the bacterial isolates isolated from the digestive tract of the German cockroach were S. aureus. The results of this study indicate that the German cockroach can be a vector for the spread of the pathogen S. aureus.