Antibiotic resistant bacteria associated with the cockroach periplaneta americana in Al-Diwaniya city / Iraq

Eighty samples of adult American cockroach Periplaneta americana were collected from different parts in Al-Diwaniya City which included 40 samples from Al-Diwaniya teaching hospital and 40 samples from houses during period between the beginning of March to the end of June 2014 in order to isolate and identify bacterial pathogens from the external surface and digestive tract of American cockroach and determined the susceptibility of these bacterial strains to different antibiotics. The present study showed Isolated nine species of bacteria from external surface and digestive tract of American cockroach were: Klebsiella (42.56%), Pseudomonas (38.61%), Proteus (35.34%), Escherichia coli (19.84%), Shigella sonnei (17.09%), Salmonella spp. (14.43%) Staphylococcus (13.82%), Streptococcus (10.89%) and Bacillus (5.13%). bacterial pathogens which isolated from periplaneta americana indicate that cockroaches are among the medically important pests found within the human houses and hospitals that cause serious health problems therefore must be combated.