Can Escherichia coli fly? The role of flies as transmitters of E. coli to food in an urban slum in Bangladesh.

Objective: To investigate the transmission of faecal bacteria by flies to food under natural settings.

Methods: Over a period of 2 months, paired (exposed and non-exposed) containers with cooked rice were placed on the ground in kitchen areas in an urban slum area in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and the numbers of flies landing on the exposed rice were counted. Following exposure, the surface of the rice was microbiologically and molecularly analysed for the presence of Escherichia coli and genes of diarrhoeagenic E.