Abstract
INTRODUCTION: American cockroaches, Periplaneta americana, are the most important pests in hospitals and dwelling environments. They are mechanical vectors of some bacterial pathogens. GOAL: The present investigation was carried out in Ghods hospital and 5 dwelling localities of Paveh city to evaluate bacterial infestations of American cockroaches in this region of Iran. METHODS: The samples were randomly collected from hospital environments and toilets and kitchens of the dwelling localities from December-March 2012 and July-September 2013. The samples were captured using sterile test tubes and sterile hand gloves. RESULTS: Totally, 98 cockroaches were collected from hospital (45.9%) and dwelling (54.1%) environments. Eight groups of bacteria including: Pseudomonas spp., Proteus spp., Klebsiella spp., Staphylococcus spp., Bacillus spp., Serratia spp., Entrobacter spp. and Escherichia coli were extracted. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of the present study revealed that the American cockroaches are very important in transmission of some bacterial pathogens, so health education and using the effective control methods to elimination and reduction of cockroaches are necessary.