Reality Biles

摘要

Can spiders be carriers of human pathogens? Can they provoke an infection through a break in the skin? A team of scientists, led by an entomologist at the University of California, Riverside, has data-mined the history of publications on spider envenom-ations to conclude that the evidence for spider-vectored infection is scanty. Further, the researchers note that the mere presence of bacteria on spider fangs or mouthparts does not establish spiders as vectors for these bacteria.Study results appeared as a letter to the editor in the January 2015 issue of Toxicon.