ArticleInternational microbiology : the official journal of the Spanish Society for Microbiology2023
The transmittable through stinging microbiota differs between honeybees and wasps: a potentially greater microbial risk of the wasp sting for humans.
Article in International microbiology : the official journal of the Spanish Society for Microbiology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 4 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 8 citations in OpenAlex.
- Emergency response and clinical treatment analysis of a mass wasp sting incident involving 38 tourists: A case report.Medicine · 2026Article
- Review
- Necrosis as a reaction to a wasp sting: a case report.Revista do Instituto de Medicina Tropical de Sao Paulo · 2025Article
- Proteomics ofToxins · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
10 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The present research investigated whether accidental contact through stinging with honeybees, wasps, and hornets could represent a microbial hazard for humans. It has been previously suggested that such contact may transmit pathogens causing infections that could even be fatal for some susceptible individuals. Stinging simulation experiments were performed in the lab with live insects collected from the environment in Lemnos Island (north-eastern Greece), while different selective agar media targeting some clinically important bacteria (i.e., Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pyogenes, Enterococcus faecalis/faecium, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa) were used as substrates for microbial recovery and identification. Results revealed none of the target pathogenic bacterial species in the honeybee samples, with bacilli, staphylococci, and micrococci dominating their surveyed microbiota. However, most of the suspect colonies isolated from wasps and hornets belonged to important hygienic indicators (i.e., enterococci, Proteus mirabilis, and coliforms), implying possible contact of these insects with fecal origin materials. To sum up, the microbiota that may be transmitted to humans through stinging appears to differ between honeybees and wasps/hornets, while the isolation from the latter samples of some other important opportunistic pathogens, such as Enterobacter spp. and Klebsiella spp., also known for multidrug resistance, could be an additional reason of concern.
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