Cockroaches (Periplaneta americana) as carriers of agents of bacterial diarrhoea in Accra, Ghana.

Bodies and intestinal contents of 208 cockroaches (Periplaneta americana), collected from kitchens in Accra and some surrounding villages were cultured for enteric bacterial pathogens. Six of them harboured three different serogroups of Salmonella, one had Shigella dysenteriae, 64 had Coliforms, 13 had Proteus species, two had Pseudomonas species and the rest (122) carried none of the bacterial species mentioned above. The presence of Salmonella species Shigella dysenteriae and Coliforms in these insects, which were collected from kitchens where foods are kept, points to the facts that these insects could play an important role in the transmission of these pathogenic organisms, especially in our environment. Permanent solution to these bacterial diarrhoea disease problems could only be solved when food, animals and the environments are free of these microbes.