| Titles | Abstract | Indexed Keywords | Author Keywords |
| Conjugative plasmids disseminating ctx-m-15 among human, animals and the environment in Mwanza Tanzania: A need to intensify one health approach | Background: Globally, blaCTX-M-15 beta-lactamases are the most popular extended spectrum beta-lactamase alleles that are widely distributed due its mobilisation by mobile genetic elements in several compartments. We aimed to determine the conjugation frequencies and replicon types associated with plasmids carrying blaCTX-M-15 gene from Extended Spectrum Beta-lactamase producing isolates in order to understand the dissemination of resistance genes in different compartments. Material and methods: A total of 51 archived isolates carrying blaCTX-M-15 beta-lactamases were used as donors in this study. Antibiotic susceptibility tests were performed as previously described for both donors and transconjugants. Conjugation experiment was performed by a modified protocol of the plate mating experiment, and plasmid replicon types were screened among donor and transconjugant isolates by multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction in a set of three primer panels. Results: The conjugation efficiency of plasmids carrying blaCTX-M-15 was 88.2% (45/51) with conjugation frequencies in the order of 10−1 to 10−9 and a 100% transfer efficiency observed among E. coli of animal origin. Majority of donors (n = 21) and transconjugants (n = 14) plasmids were typed as either Inc FIA or Inc FIB. Resistance to non-beta-lactam antibiotics was transferrable in 34/45 (75.6%) of events. Ciprofloxacin, tetracycline and sulphamethoxazole-trimethoprim resistance was co-transferred in 29/34 (85.3%) such events. Gentamicin resistance was transferred in 17/34 (50%) of events. Conclusions: Majority of plasmids carrying blaCTX-M-15 were conjugatively transferred by IncF plasmids along with non-beta lactam resistance. There is a need for more research on plasmids to understand how plasmids especially multi replicon plasmids interact and the effect of such interaction on conjugation. One Health approach is to be intensified to address antimicrobial resistance which is a public health threat. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. | bla CTX M 15 beta lactamase; ciprofloxacin; extended spectrum beta lactamase; gentamicin; sulfamethoxazole; tetracycline; unclassified drug; antibiotic resistance; antibiotic sensitivity; Article; bacterium isolate; broth dilution; conjugative plasmid; disk diffusion; Escherichia coli; freshwater fish; human; mating; minimum inhibitory concentration; mobilization; multiplex polymerase chain reaction; nonhuman; One Health; phenotype; public health; replicon; soil; Tanzania; transconjugant; trimethoprim resistance | Conjugation; CTX-M-15; Non-beta lactam antibiotics; One Health; Plasmid; Replicon |
| Occurrence of Dioctophyme renale (Goeze, 1782) in road-killed canids of Iran and its public health implication | Dioctophyme renale, is the largest of parasitic nematodes, which infects different species of fish-eating carnivores worldwide. The northern provinces of Iran (Guilan and Mazandaran) located in south of the Caspian Sea are suitable for parasitic infections due to the mild and humid climatic conditions. From separate surveys of road-killed canids in various parts of the Caspian Sea littoral area in Iran, 70 carcasses were collected along the roads of Guilan and Mazandaran from 2015 to 2017. Dioctophyme renale detected by direct observation and molecular methods based on Cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (COX1 gene) sequencing analysis. Molecular investigation was also performed to validate prevalence and reduce false negative concerns. Dioctophyme renale was found in eight of 70 carnivores, mostly in the right kidneys, as well as two cases in the abdominal cavity of a dog and a golden jackal. More carcasses on the roads were seen with lacerated internal organs. Given the frequent number of giant kidney worms in canids in the region, the transmission of this zoonotic helminth to humans seems possible, since the area is a tourism hub in the country. The infection burden of this helminth should be investigated using DNA analysis of kidney tissue of road-killed carnivores in Iran. © 2021 | Animals; Dioctophymatoidea; Dog Diseases; Dogs; Enoplida Infections; Iran; Kidney; Public Health; cyclooxygenase 1; cytochrome c oxidase; abdominal cavity; animal experiment; animal model; animal tissue; Article; Canidae; controlled study; Dioctophyme renale; DNA determination; DNA extraction; dog; female; gene sequence; helminth; Iran; jackal; male; molecular diagnosis; nematode; nematodiasis; nonhuman; phylogeny; public health; sequence analysis; wolf; animal; Dioctophymatoidea; dog disease; enoplid infection; epidemiology; kidney; parasitology; public health; veterinary medicine | Carnivores; Conventional PCR; COX1 gene; Giant kidney worm; One health |
| Enteric viruses in lentic and lotic freshwater habitats from Brazil’s Midwest and South regions in the Guarani Aquifer area | The present study reports the monitoring of viruses indicating fecal contamination in two distinct regions affected by poor management of wastewater located above the Guarani Aquifer, which is one of the biggest freshwater reservoirs in the world. In the city of Três Lagoas (located in the Midwest region, in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul), water samples were collected from Lagoa Maior, a lake used for recreation, and in Concórdia (located in the South region, in the state of Santa Catarina), from the Queimados River, which crosses the urban area. Four sampling sites were monitored from March to July 2018 in Lagoa Maior, and four sampling sites were monitored along the urban part of the Queimados River area over two periods (rainy and dry). Water samples were analyzed by concentration of Human adenovirus (HAdV), Norovirus (NoV), Rotavirus A (RAV), and Hepatitis A virus (HAV) for the Lagoa Maior samples and RVA, HAV, and Porcine circovirus 2 (PCV2) for the Queimados River samples. All sampling sites presented enteric viruses, demonstrating fecal input and potential contamination of groundwater. Results highlight the need for wastewater management to improve environmental health quality. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH, DE part of Springer Nature. | Animals; Brazil; Ecosystem; Enterovirus; Environmental Monitoring; Groundwater; Hepatitis A virus; Humans; Swine; Water Microbiology; Brazil; Cameroon; Guarani Aquifer; Mato Grosso; Mato Grosso do Sul; Midwest; North West Region; Queimados; Rio de Janeiro [Brazil]; Santa; Santa Catarina; United States; Hepatitis A virus; Human adenovirus; Norovirus; Porcine circovirus; Porcine circovirus 2; Rotavirus A; ground water; freshwater; groundwater pollution; lentic environment; lotic environment; virus; wastewater; water management; animal; Brazil; ecosystem; Enterovirus; environmental monitoring; Hepatitis A virus; human; microbiology; pig | Human enteric virus; One Health; Porcine circovirus |
| A proposal to leverage high-quality veterinary diagnostic laboratory large data streams for animal health, public health, and One Health | Test data generated by ~60 accredited member laboratories of the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians (AAVLD) is of exceptional quality. These data are captured by 1 of 13 laboratory information management systems (LIMSs) developed specifically for veterinary diagnostic laboratories (VDLs). Beginning ~2000, the National Animal Health Laboratory Network (NAHLN) developed an electronic messaging system for LIMS to automatically send standardized data streams for 14 select agents to a national repository. This messaging enables the U.S. Department of Agriculture to track and respond to high-consequence animal disease outbreaks such as highly pathogenic avian influenza. Because of the lack of standardized data collection in the LIMSs used at VDLs, there is, to date, no means of summarizing VDL large data streams for multi-state and national animal health studies or for providing near-real-time tracking for hundreds of other important animal diseases in the United States that are detected routinely by VDLs. Further, VDLs are the only state and federal resources that can provide early detection and identification of endemic and emerging zoonotic diseases. Zoonotic diseases are estimated to be responsible for 2.5 billion cases of human illness and 2.7 million deaths worldwide every year. The economic and health impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is self-evident. We review here the history and progress of data management in VDLs and discuss ways of seizing unexplored opportunities to advance data leveraging to better serve animal health, public health, and One Health. © 2021 The Author(s). | Animals; COVID-19; Humans; Laboratories; One Health; Public Health; SARS-CoV-2; United States; Veterinary Medicine; Zoonoses; Amycolatopsis; animal disease; animal health; animal identification; animal welfare; antibiotic resistance; Article; awareness; bacterium; bronchopneumonia; clinical evaluation; coronavirus disease 2019; Crossiella equi; enteritis; foot and mouth disease; herd; histopathology; infectious agent; lymphosarcoma; melanoma; morbidity; mortality; National Animal Health Laboratory Network; nonhuman; One Health; parasite; placenta disorder; placentitis; posthumous care; public health; rabies; veterinary medicine; zoonosis; animal; human; laboratory; organization and management; United States; zoonosis | animal health monitoring; laboratory information management system; standard veterinary nomenclature system; veterinary diagnostic laboratory |
| COVID-19 as a Disruptor and a Catalyst for Change | COVID-19 has profoundly and pervasively disrupted the world’s health, economy, security and attitudes. It has caused us to rethink what is most important for us individually and collectively, what we must change to retain viability as a species and as a planet, and what values and public health infrastructures governments need to embrace to avoid the next pandemic. COVID-19 has given a fillip to “One Health”, the “Global Virome Project” and other co-ordinated initiatives to address the risk of zoonotic spillovers of disease. We are challenged to become more responsible in our workplaces and in public spaces. We have learned to trust and mistrust our governments in times of crisis. Our awareness of public health and the importance of evidence-based foundations for treatment and disease-prevention has been changed. Remote health service provision has become part of the architecture of conventional health care. Hybrid-working will become standard. Masks have become conventional accessories in congregate environments. Our respect and compassion for our health practitioners has increased but at a terrible cost. We have been reminded of the importance of direct and tactile communication with those whom we love. | COVID-19; Delivery of Health Care; Humans; Pandemics; Public Health; SARS-CoV-2; health care delivery; human; pandemic; public health | COVID-19; disruption; Global Virome Project; health practitioners; masks-occupational health and safety; masks-values; One Health; pandemics; touch; workplace behaviour |
| Swine as biomedical animal model for T-cell research—Success and potential for transmittable and non-transmittable human diseases | Swine is biologically one of the most relevant large animal models for biomedical research. With its use as food animal that can be exploited as a free cell and tissue source for research and its high susceptibility to human diseases, swine additionally represent an excellent option for both the 3R principle and One Health research. One of the previously most limiting factors of the pig model was its arguably limited immunological toolbox. Yet, in the last decade, this toolbox has vastly improved including the ability to study porcine T-cells. This review summarizes the swine model for biomedical research with focus on T cells. It first contrasts the swine model to the more commonly used mouse and non-human primate model before describing the current capabilities to characterize and extend our knowledge on porcine T cells. Thereafter, it not only reflects on previous biomedical T-cell research but also extends into areas in which more in-depth T-cell analyses could strongly benefit biomedical research. While the former should inform on the successes of biomedical T-cell research in swine, the latter shall inspire swine T-cell researchers to find collaborations with researchers working in other areas – such as nutrition, allergy, cancer, transplantation, infectious diseases, or vaccine development. © 2021 The Author(s) | Animals; Biomedical Research; Communicable Diseases; Disease Models, Animal; Haplorhini; Mice; Swine; Swine Diseases; T-Lymphocytes; vaccine; allergy; Article; communicable disease; human; infection; malignant neoplasm; medical research; non communicable disease; nonhuman; nutrition; One Health; organ transplantation; primate model; priority journal; swine disease; T lymphocyte; T lymphocyte subpopulation; animal; communicable disease; disease model; Haplorhini; immunology; medical research; mouse; pig; swine disease; T lymphocyte | Allergy; Animal model; Bacteria; Cancer; Infectious disease; Parasites; Pig; T cells; Transplantation; Vaccine development; Virus |
| Concept of an Active Surveillance System for Q Fever in German Small Ruminants—Conflicts Between Best Practices and Feasibility | Q fever is a zoonotic disease caused by the bacterium Coxiella burnetii. Inhalation of contaminated dust particles or aerosols originating from animals (esp. small ruminants) is the main source of human infection. Hence, an active early warning system for Q fever in German small ruminant livestock was conceptualized to prevent human infections. First, we describe the best practice for establishing this system before evaluating its feasibility, as the combination of both evokes conflicts. Vaginal swabs from all husbandry systems with a focus on reproductive females should pooled and investigated by PCR to detect C. burnetii-shedding animals. Multistage risk-based sampling shall be carried out at the flock level and within-flock level. At the flock level, all flocks that are at risk to transmit the pathogen to the public must be sampled. At the within-flock level, all primi- and multiparous females after lambing must be tested in order to increase the probability of identifying a positive herd. Sampling should be performed during the main lambing period and before migration in residential areas. Furthermore, individual animals should be tested before migration or exhibition to ensure a negative status. If a flock tests positive in at least one individual sample, then flock-specific preventive measures should be implemented. This approach implies huge financial costs (sample testing, action/control measures). Hence, taking the step to develop more feasible and affordable preventive measures, e.g., vaccinating small ruminant flocks, should replace testing wherever justifiable. © Copyright © 2021 Winter, Schoneberg, Wolf, Bauer, Prüfer, Fischer, Gerdes, Runge, Ganter and Campe. | active surveillance; agriculture; Article; clinical practice; conflict management; Coxiella burnetii; economic aspect; evaluation study; feasibility study; herd; human; livestock; moss; nonhuman; pathogen transmission; polymerase chain reaction; Q fever; residential area; ruminant; sample size; species flock; vagina smear | Coxiella burnetii; early warning; one health; small ruminants; surveillance system |
| Market Chickens as a Source of Antibiotic-Resistant Escherichia coli in a Peri-Urban Community in Lima, Peru | The widespread and poorly regulated use of antibiotics in animal production in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is increasingly associated with the emergence and dissemination of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in retail animal products. Here, we compared Escherichia coli from chickens and humans with varying levels of exposure to chicken meat in a low-income community in the southern outskirts of Lima, Peru. We hypothesize that current practices in local poultry production result in highly resistant commensal bacteria in chickens that can potentially colonize the human gut. E. coli was isolated from cloacal swabs of non-organic (n = 41) and organic chickens (n = 20), as well as from stools of market chicken vendors (n = 23), non-vendors (n = 48), and babies (n = 60). 315 E. coli isolates from humans (n = 150) and chickens (n = 165) were identified, with chickens showing higher rates of multidrug-resistant and extended-spectrum beta-lactamase phenotypes. Non-organic chicken isolates were more resistant to most antibiotics tested than human isolates, while organic chicken isolates were susceptible to most antibiotics. Whole-genome sequencing of 118 isolates identified shared phylogroups between human and animal populations and 604 ARG hits across genomes. Resistance to florfenicol (an antibiotic commonly used as a growth promoter in poultry but not approved for human use) was higher in chicken vendors compared to other human groups. Isolates from non-organic chickens contained genes conferring resistance to clinically relevant antibiotics, including mcr-1 for colistin resistance, blaCTX-M ESBLs, and blaKPC-3 carbapenemase. Our findings suggest that E. coli strains from market chickens are a potential source of ARGs that can be transmitted to human commensals. © Copyright © 2021 Murray, Salvatierra, Dávila-Barclay, Ayzanoa, Castillo-Vilcahuaman, Huang, Pajuelo, Lescano, Cabrera, Calderón, Berg, Gilman and Tsukayama. | beta lactamase; beta lactamase AmpC; carbapenemase; cefotaxime; chloramphenicol; ciprofloxacin; cotrimoxazole; fosfomycin; gentamicin; imipenem; antibiotic resistance; antibiotic sensitivity; Article; chicken; commensal; comparative study; disk diffusion; DNA extraction; Escherichia coli; feces analysis; gene sequence; genome analysis; low income country; metagenomics; middle income country; multidrug resistant bacterium; multilocus sequence typing; nonhuman; Peru; phenotype; phylogeny; sampling; sequence analysis; urban population; whole genome sequencing | AMR; Escherichia coli; genomics; LMIC; one health; Peru; poultry; WGS |
| Exploring the one health perspective in sweden’s policies for containing antibiotic resistance | Antibiotic resistance is considered to be a major threat to global health. The main driver of antibiotic resistance is antibiotic use. Antibiotics are used in humans, animals, and food production and are released into the environment. Therefore, it is imperative to include all relevant sectors in the work to contain antibiotic resistance, i.e., a One Health approach. In this study, we aimed to describe and analyse Sweden’s policies related to containing antibiotic resistance, from a One Health perspective. Twenty-three key policy documents related to containment of antibiotic resistance in Sweden were selected and analysed according to the policy triangle framework. Sweden started early to introduce policies for containing antibiotic resistance from an international perspec-tive. Systematic measures against antibiotic resistance were implemented in the 1980s, strengthened by the creation of Strama in 1995. The policies involve agencies and organisations from human and veterinary medicine, the environment, and food production. All actors have clear responsibilities in the work to contain antibiotic resistance with a focus on international collaboration, research, and innovation. Sweden aims to be a model country in the work to contain antibiotic resistance and has a strategy for achieving this through international cooperation through various fora, such as the EU, the UN system, and OECD. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. | antibiotic resistance; article; food industry; human; One Health; Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development; responsibility; Sweden; veterinary medicine | Antibiotic resistance; One Health; Policy; Policy analysis; Sweden |
| The feasibility and acceptability of various bovine brucellosis control strategies in India | Bovine brucellosis is a neglected zoonotic disease prevalent in several developing countries including India. It has been successfully controlled in many developed countries by using vaccination in conjunction with extensive surveillance and test-and-cull approaches, but some of these approaches do not suit Indian culture and norms. This study was conducted to investigate the feasibility and social acceptability of various bovine brucellosis control strategies in India. Focus group discussions and key-informant interviews were conducted with veterinarians, para-veterinarians, veterinary academics, farmers and other stakeholders. Vaccination with the Brucella strain 19 vaccine was considered feasible, but the participants were concerned about the risk of self-inoculation, the inability to vaccinate pregnant and male animals, the difficulty to differentiate vaccinated from diseased animals and the challenges of maintaining the vaccine cold chain in India. As expected, the test-and-cull approach was not considered feasible as cattle are considered sacred by Hindus and their slaughter is banned in most states. Although the test-and-segregation approach appears reasonable in theory, it would have low acceptability, if implemented without providing any compensation to farmers. Negligible biosecurity was implemented by farmers: almost no biosecurity procedures were performed for visitors entering a farm, and testing of animals was rarely undertaken before introducing them to a farm. However, the participants considered that improving biosecurity would be more acceptable and feasible than both the test-and-cull and the test-and-segregation approaches. Similarly, inadequate personal protection was used by veterinary personnel for handling parturition, retention of placenta and abortion cases; this was considered as another area of possible improvement. Farmers and veterinarians expressed serious concerns about stray cattle as many of them could potentially be infected with brucellosis, and thus could spread the infection between farms. This study recommends using vaccination and biosecurity along with some ancillary strategies to control brucellosis in India. Information from the study could be used to develop an evidence-based disease control program for the disease in the country. © 2021 Elsevier B.V. | Brucella vaccine; live vaccine; adult; agricultural worker; animal husbandry; Article; artificial insemination; birth; bovine; bovine brucellosis; buffalo; control strategy; disease control; employment; female; grazing; hand washing; human; hygiene; India; interview; male; One Health; pasteurization; pathogen transmission; personnel; priority journal; rural area; social acceptance; vaccination; veterinarian; veterinary medicine | Disease control; Epidemiology; Mixed methods; One health; Social epidemiology; Zoonoses |
| Multisectoral one health approach to make aquaculture and fisheries resilient to a future pandemic-like situation | The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the SARS-CoV-2, has presented itself as a wicked problem where both the disease and its containment measures have caused significant human suffering. The pandemic has also affected every aspect of aquaculture and capture fisheries. Zoonotic origin of the SARS-CoV-2 and its containment measures, such as restrictions on the mobility of people, social distancing and ban on public gathering, have disrupted fish production, supply chain, consumer behaviour and perception for fish as a food item. The debilitating effect of COVID-19 on the global economy has also left people with less dispensable income, which can translate to poor fish sales in the upcoming years. Therefore, the effects of COVID-19 on society are not only a medical issue but have more profound and long-lasting socioeconomic consequences. The current article reviews the existing literature across multiple disciplines to determine the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on multiple aspects of the aquaculture and fishing industry; aquaculture and capture fishery, post-harvest processing of fish, supply chain and consumer behaviour. The article also provides recommendations for making different aspects of aquaculture and fisheries resilient to a future pandemic-like situation. The recommendations are inspired by the principles of One Health that range from biological to socioeconomic aspects of the sector. A One Health approach is a collaborative effort from professionals belonging, but not limited, to the disciplines of medicine, veterinary, environment, economics, education and social sciences to make policy-level interventions for problems that can be difficult to address using conventional approach. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd | SARS coronavirus; aquaculture; consumption behavior; COVID-19; education; fishing industry; global economy; literature review; mobility; perception; socioeconomic status | aquaculture; COVID-19; fisheries; one health; SARS-CoV-2 |
| Bayesian spatial modelling of Ebola outbreaks in Democratic Republic of Congo through the INLA-SPDE approach | Ebola virus (EBV) disease is a globally acknowledged public health emergency, endemic in the west and equatorial Africa. To understand the epidemiology especially the dynamic pattern of EBV disease, we analyse the EBV case notification data for confirmed cases and reported deaths of the ongoing outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) between 2018 and 2019, and examined the impact of reported violence on the spread of the virus. Using fully Bayesian geo-statistical analysis through stochastic partial differential equations (SPDE) allows us to quantify the spatial patterns at every point of the spatial domain. Parameter estimation was based on the integrated nested Laplace approximation (INLA). Our findings revealed a positive association between violent events in the affected areas and the reported EBV cases (posterior mean = 0.024, 95% CI: 0.005, 0.045) and deaths (posterior mean = 0.022, 95% CI: 0.005, 0.041). Translating to an increase of 2.4% and 2.2% in the relative risks of EBV cases and deaths associated with a unit increase in violent events (one additional Ebola case is associated with an average of 45 violent events). We also observed clusters of EBV cases and deaths spread to neighbouring locations in similar manners. Findings from the study are therefore useful for hot spot identification, location-specific disease surveillance and intervention. © 2021 Wiley-VCH GmbH | Bayes Theorem; Democratic Republic of the Congo; Disease Outbreaks; Female; Hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola; Humans; Male; Models, Biological; Risk Factors; adolescent; adult; Article; Democratic Republic Congo; developing country; disease burden; disease surveillance; Ebola hemorrhagic fever; Ebolavirus; epidemic; female; geostatistical analysis; human; incidence; integrated nested Laplace approximation; major clinical study; male; mortality; nonhuman; quantitative analysis; risk factor; spatial autocorrelation analysis; stochastic model; stochastic partial differential equation; violence; virus transmission; Bayes theorem; biological model; Democratic Republic Congo; Ebola hemorrhagic fever | conflicts and violence; Ebola virus disease; emerging infectious diseases; geo-statistics; health security; one health; spatial correlation; zoonoses |
| Knowledge, Attitudes, and Risk Perception Toward Avian Influenza Virus Exposure Among Cuban Hunters | A critical step for decreasing zoonotic disease threats is to have a good understanding of the associated risks. Hunters frequently handle potentially infected birds, so they are more at risk of being exposed to zoonotic avian pathogens, including avian influenza viruses (AIVs). The objective of the current study was to gain a better understanding of Cuban hunters’ general hunting practices, focusing on their knowledge and risk perception on avian influenza. An anonymous and voluntary semi-structured questionnaire was designed and applied to 398 hunters. Multiple correspondence analyses found relationships with potential exposure of AIVs to people and domestic animals. The main associated risks factors identified were not taking the annual flu vaccine (60.1%) and not cleaning hunting knives (26.3%); Direct contact with water (32.1%), cleaning wild birds at home (33.2%); receiving assistance during bird cleaning (41.9%), keeping poultry at home (56.5%) and feeding domestic animals with wild bird leftovers (30.3%) were also identified as significant risk factors. The lack of use of some protective measures reported by hunters had no relationship with their awareness on avian influenza, which may imply a lack of such knowledge. The results evidenced that more effective risk communication strategies about the consequences of AIVs infecting human or other animals, and the importance of reducing such risks, are urgently needed. © Copyright © 2021 Delgado-Hernández, Mugica, Acosta, Pérez, Montano, Abreu, Ayala, Percedo and Alfonso. | Animals; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Humans; Influenza A virus; Influenza in Birds; Perception; Zoonoses; animal; attitude to health; avian influenza; human; Influenza A virus; perception; zoonosis | avian influenza; Cuba; hunter; One Health; pandemic; risk perception; wild bird |
| A brief report of the prevalence of chronic and acute health conditions among blind American adults | Background: Prior research demonstrates disparities in the prevalence of certain chronic and acute health conditions among persons who are blind (PWB) compared to non-blind persons, such as diabetes and infectious diseases. However, a comprehensive understanding of the prevalence of chronic and acute health conditions among PWB is currently lacking. Objective: The present study addressed this gap by examining the prevalence of chronic and acute conditions among blind persons, and examining differences by gender. Methods: The present study surveyed 410 PWB residing in the U.S. about their health conditions and activities. Lifetime prevalence for eight chronic and six acute health conditions were estimated separately for men and women. Engagement in physical activity, regular use of medication, and satisfaction with health were also estimated. Results: We found that men more often reported their health conditions interfered with daily activities compared to women, as well as higher prevalence of stroke and arthritis compared to women. Conclusion: The current study contributes information that is vital to understanding the burden of specific health conditions on this population and necessary to understand the extent to which this burden disproportionately affects PWB. © 2021 Elsevier Inc. | Adult; Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System; Chronic Disease; Disabled Persons; Female; Health Behavior; Humans; Male; Prevalence; United States; Visually Impaired Persons; acute disease; adult; American; arthritis; Article; blindness; cerebrovascular accident; chronic disease; female; health behavior; health status; hospitalization; human; lifetime prevalence; major clinical study; male; middle aged; migraine; One Health; osteoarthritis; patient satisfaction; physical activity; rheumatoid arthritis; secondary analysis; sex difference; behavioral risk factor surveillance system; chronic disease; disabled person; epidemiology; prevalence; United States; visually impaired person | Acute condition; Blindness; Chronic disease; Health behaviors; Health disparities |
| The Impact of COVID-19 Outbreak in Italy on the Sustainable Food Consumption Intention From a “One Health” Perspective | Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a transmissible illness that was recognized in December 2019 and World Health Organization (WHO) stated a pandemic on 11 March 2020. As no cure has been developed for COVID-19 disease yet, Italy has adopted restrictive measures to avoid the spread of the virus, causing different psychological reactions (e.g., stress, anxiety) that lead people to change lifestyle and in particular the consumer orientation toward food. In addition, the COVID-19 emergency had also affected the Italian economy, causing an 11.3% decrease in GDP (gross domestic product). All these changes gave rise to a sense of instability, but it is known that new possibilities may arise in these situations. In particular, the pandemic could be the turning point to make consumers aware of the close link between human health and the ecosystems, supporting the “One Health” perspective and enhancing the orientation to consumer sustainable food products. However, little is known about how the psychological reactions to COVID-19 emergency have affected the consumers’ intention to purchase sustainable food products. In order to answer these questions, a representative sample of 1,004 Italian citizens, extracted by stratified sampling, answered an online survey between May the 12th and 18th 2020. The data were analyzed using ANOVA and contingency tables. The results show that during phase one of COVID-19 disease about 30% of the sample reported that have frequently (often and always) consumed the certified sustainable food products and about 20% of the sample have intention to increase the consumption of them in the next 6 months, percentages that increase among those who feel more vulnerable regarding the risk contagion. Moreover, the psychological impact of the COVID-19 emergency has led to a change in consumers’ attitudes, increasing the interest in animal and environmental issues and in human health. These aspects seem to drive the future intention of purchasing sustainable food products. This research highlights how the psychological reactions to the health emergency have changed the consumers’ attitudes toward sustainability issues, leading them to follow a more sustainable diet that is recognized as a way to preserve human health, environmental preservation, and animal welfare for present and future generations. © Copyright © 2021 Castellini, Savarese and Graffigna. | consumer orientation; COVID-19; food consumption; food habits; food psychology; one health; risk perception; sustainability |
| Molecular Evidence for Local Acquisition of Human Alveolar Echinococcosis in Saskatchewan, Canada | Alveolar echinococcosis (AE) is a life-threatening parasitic disease caused by the zoonotic cestode Echinococcus multilocularis. Our goals were to confirm infection, identify species, and analyze biogeographical origin of metacestode tissues from a suspected human AE case in Saskatchewan, Canada. We conducted polymerase chain reaction (PCR) targeting the nad1 mitochondrial gene for E. multilocularis and the rrnS ribosomal RNA gene for E. granulosus and conducted haplotype analysis at the nad2 locus. Our analysis confirmed AE and indicated that sequences matched infected Saskatchewan coyotes and European E3/E4 haplotypes. The patient had no travel history outside North America. This suggests autochthonous transmission of a European-type strain. © 2020 The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press for the Infectious Diseases Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, e-mail: Journals.permissions@oup.com. | Animals; Coyotes; Echinococcosis; Echinococcus multilocularis; Haplotypes; Humans; Saskatchewan; mebendazole; abdominal abscess; abdominal pain; alveolar echinococcosis; amino acid sequence; Article; Canada; controlled study; Echinococcus multilocularis; gene locus; geographic distribution; haplotype; human; human tissue; intestine ischemia; molecular dynamics; nad2 gene; nausea; night sweat; nucleotide sequence; polymerase chain reaction; protein purification; RNA gene; rrnS gene; septic shock; sequence alignment; species identification; vomiting; animal; coyote; echinococcosis; Echinococcus multilocularis; genetics; parasitology; Saskatchewan | Echinococcus multilocularis; North America; One Health; zoonosis |
| Upraising a silent pollution: Antibiotic resistance at coastal environments and transference to long-distance migratory shorebirds | Large amounts of antibiotics from different sources have been released into coastal environments, especially in high human-populated areas, but comprehensive studies of antibiotic footprint in wildlife are scarce. Here we assess occurrence of antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB) and antibiotic resistance gene (ARG) both in sediments and gut microbiota of a long-distance migratory shorebird species in two coastal wetlands at a sparsely-populated area in Pacific Patagonian coasts with contrasting potential antibiotic sources, especially from aquaculture. We found 62% of sediment samples showing ARB, and ARGs similarly occurring in sediments at both bays. However multi-resistant ARB were found only at sediments in the bay surrounding aquaculture operations. An 87% of cloacal bird samples showed at least one ARB, with 63% being multi-resistant and some of them with a high potential pathogenicity. ARGs were present in 46% of the samples from birds, with similar multi-resistant frequencies among bays. Besides specific differences mainly associated to antibiotics used in salmon aquaculture that boosted ARB in sediments, ARB and ARGs occurrence was overall similar at two bays with contrasting main human activities, in spite of being a comparatively low human-populated area. Therefore, our results reinforce the idea that the antibiotic footprint may be widespread at a global scale and can extend beyond the geographical influence of antibiotic sources, especially at coastal environments where migratory shorebirds act both as reservoirs and potential spreaders of antibiotic resistance. © 2021 Elsevier B.V. | Angiotensin Receptor Antagonists; Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitors; Animals; Anti-Bacterial Agents; Aquaculture; Bays; Drug Resistance, Microbial; Genes, Bacterial; Humans; Microbiota; Antibiotics; Aquaculture; Biodiversity; Birds; Coastal zones; Sediments; Wetlands; angiotensin receptor antagonist; antiinfective agent; dipeptidyl carboxypeptidase inhibitor; Antibiotic-resistant bacteria; Antibiotics resistance; Bacteria resistance; Biodiversity conservation; Coastal environments; Eco-toxicology; Large amounts; One-health; Patagonia; Salmon aquacultures; antibiotic resistance; biodiversity; coastal zone; conservation management; ecotoxicology; frequency analysis; migratory behavior; migratory species; pathogenicity; salmonid; wader; animal reservoir; antibiotic resistance; aquaculture; Article; bacterial virulence; coastal waters; drug use; human impact (environment); intestine flora; migratory species; multidrug resistant bacterium; nonhuman; salmonine; sediment; shorebird; wetland; animal; antibiotic resistance; bacterial gene; bay; genetics; human; Conservation | Biodiversity conservation; Ecotoxicology; One-health; Patagonia; Salmon aquaculture; Wetlands |
| Australian bat lyssavirus: Analysis of national bat surveillance data from 2010 to 2016 | Australian bat lyssavirus (ABLV) was first described in 1996 and has been regularly detected in Australian bats since that time. While the virus does not cause population level impacts in bats and has minimal impacts on domestic animals, it does pose a public health risk. For this reason, bats are monitored for ABLV and a national dataset is collated and maintained by Wildlife Health Australia. The 2010–2016 dataset was analysed using logistic regression and time-series analysis to identify predictors of infection status in bats and the factors associated with human exposure to bats. In common with previous passive surveillance studies, we found that little red flying-foxes (Pteropus scapulatus) are more likely than other species to be infected with ABLV. In the four Australian mainland species of flying-fox, there are seasonal differences in infection risk that may be associated with reproductive cycles, with summer and autumn the seasons of greatest risk. The risk of human contact was also seasonal, with lower risk in winter. In line with other studies, we found that the circumstances in which the bat is encountered, such as exhibiting abnormal behaviour or being grounded, are risk factors for ABLV infection and human contact and should continue be key components of public health messaging. We also found evidence of biased recording of some types of information, which made interpretation of some findings more challenging. Strengthening of “One Health” linkages between public health and animal health services at the operational level could help overcome these biases in future, and greater harmonisation nationally would increase the value of the dataset. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. | Animals; Australia; Chiroptera; Epidemiological Monitoring; Female; Humans; Lyssavirus; Male; One Health; Rhabdoviridae Infections; Risk Factors; Seasons; Species Specificity; Viral Zoonoses; abnormal behavior; animal welfare; Article; automutilation; disease transmission; epidemic; health service; heart rate; heat stress; infection risk; Lyssavirus; nonhuman; ovary cycle; passive surveillance; polymerase chain reaction; prevalence; Pteropus; public health; rabies; seasonal variation; seroprevalence; species distribution; time series analysis; virus isolation; virus neutralization; virus transmission; wildlife; Zika fever; animal; Australia; bat; classification; epidemiological monitoring; female; human; male; One Health; rhabdovirus infection; risk factor; season; species difference; veterinary medicine; virology | Australia; Australian bat lyssavirus; Flying-fox; Lyssavirus; One Health; Pteropus; Public health; Zoonosis |
| A One-Health Quantitative Model to Assess the Risk of Antibiotic Resistance Acquisition in Asian Populations: Impact of Exposure Through Food, Water, Livestock and Humans | Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has become a major threat worldwide, especially in countries with inadequate sanitation and low antibiotic regulation. However, adequately prioritizing AMR interventions in such settings requires a quantification of the relative impacts of environmental, animal, and human sources in a One-Health perspective. Here, we propose a stochastic quantitative risk assessment model for the different components at interplay in AMR selection and spread. The model computes the incidence of AMR colonization in humans from five different sources: water or food consumption, contacts with livestock, and interhuman contacts in hospitals or the community, and combines these incidences into a per-year acquisition risk. Using data from the literature and Monte-Carlo simulations, we apply the model to hypothetical Asian-like settings, focusing on resistant bacteria that may cause infections in humans. In both scenarios A, illustrative of low-income countries, and B, illustrative of high-income countries, the overall individual risk of becoming colonized with resistant bacteria at least once per year is high. However, the average predicted incidence of colonization was lower in scenario B at 0.82 (CrI [0.13, 5.1]) acquisitions/person/year, versus 1.69 (CrI [0.66, 11.13]) acquisitions/person/year for scenario A. A high percentage of population with no access to improved water on premises and a high percentage of population involved in husbandry are shown to strongly increase the AMR acquisition risk. The One-Health AMR risk assessment framework we developed may prove useful to policymakers throughout Asia, as it can easily be parameterized to realistically reproduce conditions in a given country, provided data are available. © 2020 Society for Risk Analysis | Animals; Anti-Bacterial Agents; Asia; Asians; Bacteria; Drug Resistance, Bacterial; Food; Humans; Incidence; Livestock; Monte Carlo Method; One Health; Prevalence; Reproducibility of Results; Risk Assessment; Sanitation; Water; Asia; Agriculture; Antibiotics; Bacteria; Chromium compounds; Food supply; Health; Health risks; Iodine compounds; Monte Carlo methods; Risk perception; Stochastic models; Stochastic systems; antiinfective agent; water; Antibiotic resistance; Antimicrobial resistances; Health perspective; Low income countries; Quantitative modeling; Quantitative risk assessment; Resistant bacteria; Risk assessment framework; antibiotic resistance; colonization; disease incidence; disease spread; hospital sector; policy making; risk assessment; sanitation; animal; antibiotic resistance; Asia; Asian; bacterium; food; human; incidence; livestock; Monte Carlo method; One Health; prevalence; procedures; reproducibility; risk assessment; sanitation; Risk assessment | Acquisition; antibiotic resistance; Asia; exposure assessment; health risk assessment; Monte-Carlo simulation; One-Health; transmission summary for social media |
| Monitoring online media reports for early detection of unknown diseases: Insight from a retrospective study of COVID-19 emergence | Event-based surveillance (EBS) systems monitor a broad range of information sources to detect early signals of disease emergence, including new and unknown diseases. In December 2019, a newly identified coronavirus emerged in Wuhan (China), causing a global coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. A retrospective study was conducted to evaluate the capacity of three event-based surveillance (EBS) systems (ProMED, HealthMap and PADI-web) to detect early COVID-19 emergence signals. We focused on changes in online news vocabulary over the period before/after the identification of COVID-19, while also assessing its contagiousness and pandemic potential. ProMED was the timeliest EBS, detecting signals one day before the official notification. At this early stage, the specific vocabulary used was related to ‘pneumonia symptoms’ and ‘mystery illness’. Once COVID-19 was identified, the vocabulary changed to virus family and specific COVID-19 acronyms. Our results suggest that the three EBS systems are complementary regarding data sources, and all require timeliness improvements. EBS methods should be adapted to the different stages of disease emergence to enhance early detection of future unknown disease outbreaks. © 2020 The Authors. Transboundary and Emerging Diseases published by Blackwell Verlag GmbH | Animals; China; Communicable Diseases, Emerging; COVID-19; Humans; Population Surveillance; Retrospective Studies; SARS-CoV-2; African swine fever; Article; avian influenza (H5N1); communication skill; coronavirus disease 2019; decision making; disease surveillance; human; influenza; intelligence; language; lung infection; medical terminology; nonhuman; pandemic; pneumonia; public health; respiratory tract disease; retrospective study; risk assessment; social media; vocabulary; zoonosis; animal; China; communicable disease; health survey | COVID-19; emerging disease; epidemic intelligence; one Health; online news; PADI-web |
| Predicting antimicrobial susceptibility from the bacterial genome: A new paradigm for one health resistance monitoring | The laboratory identification of antibacterial resistance is a cornerstone of infectious disease medicine. In vitro antimicrobial susceptibility testing has long been based on the growth response of organisms in pure culture to a defined concentration of antimicrobial agents. By comparing individual isolates to wild-type susceptibility patterns, strains with acquired resistance can be identified. Acquired resistance can also be detected genetically. After many decades of research, the inventory of genes underlying antimicrobial resistance is well known for several pathogenic genera including zoonotic enteric organisms such as Salmonella and Campylobacter and continues to grow substantially for others. With the decline in costs for large scale DNA sequencing, it is now practicable to characterize bacteria using whole genome sequencing, including the carriage of resistance genes in individual microorganisms and those present in complex biological samples. With genomics, we can generate comprehensive, detailed information on the bacterium, the mechanisms of antibiotic resistance, clues to its source, and the nature of mobile DNA elements by which resistance spreads. These developments point to a new paradigm for antimicrobial resistance detection and tracking for both clinical and public health purposes. © Published 2020. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA | Animals; Anti-Bacterial Agents; Bacteria; Drug Resistance, Bacterial; Genome, Bacterial; Microbial Sensitivity Tests; One Health; Whole Genome Sequencing; antibiotic agent; bacterial DNA; antiinfective agent; antibiotic resistance; antibiotic sensitivity; Article; bacterial gene; bacterial genetics; bacterial genome; bacterial strain; bacterium isolate; Campylobacter; DNA sequencing; human; metagenomics; nonhuman; One Health; phenotype; prediction; public health; Salmonella; whole genome sequencing; animal; bacterial genome; bacterium; genetics; microbial sensitivity test; veterinary medicine | antimicrobial resistance; surveillance; whole genome sequencing |
| Rodent-related zoonotic pathogens at the human–animal–environment interface in qatar: A systematic review and meta-analysis | Rodents are one of the most diversified terrestrial mammals, and they perform several beneficial activities in nature. These animals are also important as carriers of many pathogens with public health importance. The current systematic review was conducted to formulate a true depic-tion of rodent-related zoonoses in Qatar. Following systematic searches on PubMed, Scopus, Science Direct, and Web of Science and a screening process, a total of 94 published articles were selected and studied. The studied articles reported 23 rodent-related zoonotic pathogens that include nine bacterial, eleven parasitic, and three viral pathogens, from which the frequently reported pathogens were Mycobacterium tuberculosis (32 reports), Escherichia coli (23), and Salmonella spp. (16). The possible pathway of entry of the rodent-borne pathogens can be the land port, seaports, and airport of Qatar through carrier humans and animals, contaminated food, and agricultural products. The pathogens can be conserved internally by rodents, pets, and livestock; by agricultural production systems; and by food marketing chains. The overall estimated pooled prevalence of the pathogens among the human population was 4.27% (95%CI: 4.03–4.51%; p < 0.001) with significant heterogeneity (I2 = 99.50%). The top three highest prevalent pathogens were M. tuberculosis (30.90%; 22.75– 39.04%; p < 0.001; I2 = 99.70%) followed by Toxoplasma gondii (21.93%; 6.23–37.61%; p < 0.001; I2 = 99.30%) and hepatitis E virus (18.29%; 11.72–24.86%; p < 0.001; I2 = 96.70%). However, there is a knowledge gap about the listed pathogens regarding the occurrence, transmission pathways, and rodent role in transmission dynamics at the human–animal–environment interface in Qatar. Further studies are required to explore the role of rodents in spreading zoonotic pathogens through the One Health framework, consisting of zoologists, ecologists, microbiologists, entomologists, veterinari-ans, and public health experts in this country. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. | Animals; Humans; Livestock; Parasites; Qatar; Rodentia; Zoonoses; Qatar; Bacteria (microorganisms); Escherichia coli; Hepatitis E virus; Mammalia; Mycobacterium tuberculosis; Rodentia; Salmonella; Scopus; Toxoplasma gondii; bacterium; disease transmission; infectious disease; meta-analysis; pathogen; public health; rodent; airport; Article; bacterial transmission; bacterium carrier; ecologist; environmental factor; Escherichia coli; food contamination; health care personnel; Hepatitis E virus; human; infectious agent; knowledge; land port; livestock; marketing; medical expert; meta analysis (topic); microbiologist; Mycobacterium tuberculosis; nonhuman; parasite transmission; parasite vector; pet animal; plant product; prevalence; public health; Qatar; rodent; Salmonella; seaport; systematic review; Toxoplasma gondii; veterinarian; virus carrier; virus transmission; zoonosis; animal; epidemiology; meta analysis; parasite; Qatar; zoonosis | Environment; Meta-analysis; One Health; Pathogens; Public health; Qatar; Rodents |
| Creating a platform to enable collaborative learning in One Health: The Joint Initiative for Teaching and Learning on Global Health Challenges and One Health experience | The “Joint Initiative for Teaching and Learning on Global Health Challenges and One Health” targets education and training in Global Health Challenges and One Health, focusing on surpassing issues that affect One Health training programs. The present work describes the planning, implementation, and challenges to develop an international educational initiative among six partner institutions from four different countries, to build a collaborative teaching and learning environment. The course applies collaborative online international learning principles and is addressed to graduate students of universities from Brazil, Germany, Mozambique, and Kosovo. A pilot curriculum was developed with modules on intercultural competence, interprofessional and collaborative practice in One Health; One Health; healthcare, surveillance, and One Health; bioethics in One Health and careers in Global Health. The course combines synchronous and asynchronous activities developed in groups by mixing students from different institutions and countries. Forty-four experts from 22 institutions of the Americas, Africa, Europe, and Asia collaborated with the course content. Some challenges to implementing the course were the different criteria to assign credits across institutions, the lack of bibliographic material across all partners, limited overlap hours and periods for synchronous activities, and short semester overlap across institutions. Despite the challenges for implementation, the entire process of planning and delivering the course involves intense international collaboration, contributing to the curriculum internationalization, benefiting all institutions involved, promoting exchange even in the challenging scenario of the pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). © 2021 The Authors | Article; Brazil; clinical competence; clinical practice; continuing education; coronavirus disease 2019; curriculum; e-learning; Germany; global health; graduate student; health care policy; health education; human; Kosovo; learning; low income country; middle income country; Mozambique; pandemic; population research; teaching | Collaborative learning; Global Health; Graduate education; International cooperation; One health |
| Legislation advancement of one health in China in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic: From the perspective of the wild animal conservation law | The outbreak of COVID-19 epidemic is endangering the health of all humans and requires the urgent attention and active response of all countries and all areas of society. Existing studies have shown that wild animals are one of the sources of high-risk virus infection affecting human health, and human activities have largely shaped the routes of virus transmission. To protect wildlife is to protect human health. We should follow the concept of One Health to make corresponding legislation, so as to better coordinate the relationship among human health, animal health and environmental health. Since the outbreak of COVID-19 epidemic, China has taken many effective measures to prevent its spreading, including revision of the Wild Animal Conservation Law. All sectors of the Chinese society have issued a strong appeal to pursue One Health and even specific legislative proposals. Because the current Wild Animal Conservation Law fails to properly reflect the concept of One Health, which is the root cause of the imperfect design of the system and the key to the unsatisfactory effectiveness of the legal application. China’s new Wild Animal Conservation Law is expected to make a large-scale and systematic revision, which should fully implement the concept of One Health. © 2020 The Author(s) | Article; China; coronavirus disease 2019; environmental health; environmental policy; environmental protection; epidemic; law; medical society; One Health; pandemic; wildlife conservation | COVID-19; Infectious disease control; One Health; The Wild Animal Conservation Law |
| The Grass Was Greener – Climate Change, One Health, and the High Hopes to Mitigate COVID-19, Avian Influenza, and other Zoonotic Emerging Diseases | [No abstract available] | Article; avian influenza; climate change; coronavirus disease 2019; deforestation; disease transmission; grass; greenhouse effect; human; nonhuman; One Health; poverty; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; wildlife; World Health Organization; zoonosis |
| First report of echinococcus ortleppi in free-living wild boar (Sus scrofa) from Portugal | Cystic echinococcosis (CE) is a zoonosis that is prevalent worldwide. It is considered endemic in Portugal but few studies have been performed on Echinococcus granulosus sensu lato and their hosts. In this study, CE cysts are reported for the first time in a free-living wild boar (Sus scrofa) in Portugal. The presence of the metacestodes in the liver of the wild boar was identified by morphological features, microscopic examination and molecular analysis. The sequencing of part of the DNA nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer-1 (ITS-1) region revealed a G5 genotype that presently corresponds to Echinococcus ortleppi. This is the first report of E. ortleppi in Portugal and to the best of the authors’ knowledge, in Europe. These results suggest that wild boar may be a host of CE, namely, crossing the livestock–wildlife interface, which has important public health implications. Wildlife reservoirs must be taken into account as CE hosts and surveillance of game as well as health education for hunters should be implemented using a One Health approach, with implementation of feasible and tailor-made control strategies, namely, proper elimination of byproducts in the field. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. | Cystic echinococcosis; Echinococcus ortleppi; Hunters; One health; Wild boar |
| Using internet search data to understand information seeking behavior for health and conservation topics during the COVID-19 pandemic | Emerging zoonotic diseases, such as COVID-19, exist at the intersection of human health and the environment. Public interest and support are required to maximize the effectiveness of policies to combat the current pandemic and prevent future outbreaks of zoonoses. Here, we use internet search data from the United States to investigate changes in public information seeking about topics at the intersection of health and the environment during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using breakpoint detection methods, we identify sharp increases in interest for ‘wildlife trade’, ‘bats’, and ‘pangolins’ in the early stages of the pandemic (on Jan. 12, Jan. 19, and Jan. 26, 2020, respectively). Network analyses also revealed increasing connectivity between terms related to human health and the environment, as well as the emergence of novel search terms pointing to a greater interest in wildlife trade and consumption. During the pandemic, the network connectivity between coronavirus keywords and conservation keywords increased, which we measured using the number of unique connections (edge connectivity, k′ (G)) and the number of simple paths (Sp) between keywords. Both measures of network connectivity increased between ‘coronavirus’ and ‘bats’ or ‘pangolins’ (Δk′ (G) = 1, ΔSp = 37), and between ‘coronavirus’ and ‘conservation’ (Δk′ (G) = 1, ΔSp = 160). These findings suggest that policy and outreach efforts aimed at engaging public interest in intersectional approaches to pandemic prevention (eg: One Health, Planetary Health), may be able to take advantage of increases in public information seeking following catalyzing events during the pandemic. Further monitoring is needed to determine if these changes persist over time. © 2021 Elsevier Ltd | Coronavirus; COVID-19; data set; detection method; disease control; health policy; public health | Google Trends; One Health; Pandemic; Planetary health; Species conservation; Wildlife trade |
| Public Policies and One Health in Brazil: The Challenge of the Disarticulation | Working the One health strategy in developing countries is a challenge, due to structural weaknesses or deprivation of financial, human, and material resources. Brazil has policies and programs that would allow continuous and systematic monitoring of human, animal, and environmental health, recommending strategies for control and prevention. For animals, there are components of the Epidemiological Surveillance of zoonosis and Animal Health Programs. To guarantee food safety, there are Health Surveillance services and support of the Agropecuary Defense in the inspection of these products, productive environments, and their inputs. Environmental Surveillance Services monitor water and air quality, which may influence health. For human health, these and other services related to Health Surveillance, such as Worker Health and Epidemiological Surveillance, which has a training program responsible for forming professionals groups to respond effectively to emergencies in public health are available. Therefore, Brazil has instruments that may allow integrated planning and intervention based on the One Health initiative. However, the consolidation of this faces several challenges, such as insufficient resources, professional alienation, and lack of the recognition of the importance of animal and environmental health for the maintenance of human and planetary well-being. This culminates in disarticulation, lack of communication, and integration between organizations. Thus, efforts to share attributions and responsibilities must be consolidated, overcoming the verticality of the actions, promoting efficiency and effectiveness. Finally, this perspective aims to describe the government instruments that constitute potential national efforts and the challenges for the consolidation of the One Health initiative in Brazil. © Copyright © 2021 Espeschit, Santana and Moreira. | Animals; Brazil; Disarticulation; Humans; One Health; Organizations; Public Policy; animal; Brazil; disarticulation; epidemiology; human; One Health; organization; public policy | agricultural defense; animal health; animal-human bond; Health Surveillance; zoonosis |
| The Broad Range of Coronaviruses Co-Existing in Chiropteran: Implications for One Health | Bats are a group of mammals that harbor the most significant number of coronaviruses. The aim of present review article was to analyze the broad spectrum of the coronavirus coexisting in Chiropterans hosts. Bats have certain types of cell receptors that allow them to be the potential hosts of a large number of viruses without the presence of any clinical manifestations, and to be a source of contagion infections for other animals and human species. Emphasis can be placed on five coronaviruses, such as Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Disease, Severe Acute Diarrhea Syndrome, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome 2, which have had significant impacts causing epidemic outbreaks in different parts of the world, and generating implications for both human and animal health. In conclusion, recent research indicated the importance of bats as potential hosts of multiple coroaviruses leading to some zoonotic diseases. © 2021. All Rights Reserved. | hemagglutinin; microRNA; Article; Chiropterans; coronavirus disease 2019; disease transmission; echolocation; epidemic; genetic analysis; geographic distribution; hospital personnel; human; mammal; Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus; mortality; nonhuman; nucleotide sequence; One Health; phylogeny; porcine epidemic diarrhea; Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus; resuscitation; sequence analysis; traditional medicine; virus replication; virus transmission | Bats; Coronaviruses; Cross-species; Evolution; Spillover; Transmission |
| Molecular characterization of antimicrobial resistance and virulence genes of bacterial pathogens from bovine and caprine mastitis in northern Lebanon | Mastitis is an infectious disease encountered in dairy animals worldwide that is currently a growing concern in Lebanon. This study aimed at investigating the etiology of the main mastitiscausing pathogens in Northern Lebanon, determining their antimicrobial susceptibility profiles, and identifying their antimicrobial resistance (AMR) genes. A total of 101 quarter milk samples were collected from 77 cows and 11 goats presenting symptoms of mastitis on 45 dairy farms. Bacterial identification was carried out through matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry. Antimicrobial susceptibility was tested by disc diffusion and broth microdilution methods. Molecular characterization included polymerase chain reaction (PCR) screening for genes encoding extended-spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBLs) and plasmid-mediated AmpC among Enterobacterales isolates, and virulence factors among Staphylococcus isolates. Escherichia coli isolates were subjected to phylogenetic typing by a quadruplex PCR method. The most frequently identified species were Streptococcus uberis (19.2%), Streptococcus agalactiae (15.1%), E. coli (12.3%), and Staphylococcus aureus (10.96%). Gram-positive bacteria were resistant to macrolides and tetracycline, whereas gram-negative bacteria displayed resistance to ampicillin and tetracycline. Two ESBL genes, blaTEM (83.3%) and blaOXA (16.7%), and one AmpC beta-lactamase gene, blaCMY-II (16.7%), were detected among six E. coli isolates, which mainly belonged to phylogenetic group B1. Among Staphylococcus spp., the mecA gene was present in three isolates. Furthermore, four isolates contained at least one toxin gene, and all S. aureus isolates carried the ica operon. These findings revealed the alarming risk of AMR in the Lebanese dairy chain and the importance of monitoring antimicrobial usage. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. | Antimicrobial resistance; Beta-lactamase; Biofilm; Lebanon; Mastitis; Molecular epidemiology; One health; Virulence |
| Cerebral cysticercosis in a wild Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) in Bhutan: A first report in non-domestic felids | The endangered Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) is a keystone species playing an essential role in ecology as well as in the social and spiritual lives of the Himalayan people. The latest estimate of the Bengal tiger population in Bhutan accounts for 103 individuals. Infectious organisms, including zoonotic parasites causing high burden in human health, have received little attention as a cause of mortality in tigers. Taeniosis/cysticercosis, caused by the cestode Taenia solium, is considered one of the major neglected tropical diseases in Southeast Asia. We present here a case of neurocysticercosis in a Bengal tiger showing advanced neurological disease outside Thimphu, the capital city of Bhutan. After palliative care, the animal died, and necropsy revealed multiple small cysts in the brain. Here we show the presence of two genetic variants of T. solium in the parasite material collected based on PCR and sequencing of the complete cox1 and cytB genes. The sequences form a discrete branch within the Asia plus Madagascar cluster of the parasite. On other hand, tests for feline morbillivirus, feline calicivirus, canine distemper virus, Nipah, rabies, Japanese encephalitis, feline leukaemia and feline immunodeficiency virus were negative. In contrast, PCR for feline herpesvirus was positive and a latex agglutination test revealed an elevated antibody titer against Toxoplasma gondii (titer 1:256). The molecular examination of taeniid eggs isolated from the tiger faeces produced sequences for which the highest homology in GenBank is between 92% and 94% with T. regis and T. hydatigena. This fatal case of T. solium neurocysticercosis, a disease previously unrecorded in tigers or other non-domestic felids, demonstrates an anthropogenically driven transmission of a deadly pathogen which could become a serious threat to the tiger population. © 2021 The Authors | agarose; cefotaxime; cyclooxygenase 1; cytochrome b; cytochrome c oxidase; formaldehyde; phosphate buffered saline; tiletamine plus zolazepam; vitamin B group; adult; animal experiment; animal tissue; antibody titer; Article; autopsy; body weight; canine tooth; controlled study; Echinococcus multilocularis; enzyme linked immunosorbent assay; feces analysis; genetic variability; hemagglutination inhibition test; Herpesviridae; histopathology; Japanese encephalitis; kidney hemorrhage; latex agglutination test; male; multiplex polymerase chain reaction; neurocysticercosis; nonhuman; nucleotide sequence; palliative therapy; phylogeny; reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction; Taenia asiatica; Taenia hydatigena; Taenia saginata; Taenia solium; tiger; Western blotting | Bengal tiger; Bhutan; Conservation medicine; First report; Neurocysticercosis; One health; Panthera tigris tigris; Taenia solium |
| Detection of blaOXA-1, blaTEM-1, and Virulence Factors in E. coli Isolated From Seals | Marine mammals are frequently considered good sentinels for human, animal and environmental health due to their long lifespan, coastal habitat, and characteristics as top chain predators. Using a One Health approach, marine mammals can provide information that helps to enhance the understanding of the health of the marine and coastal environment. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is the quintessential One Health problem that poses a well-recognised threat to human, animal, and ecosystem health worldwide. Treated and untreated sewage, hospital waste and agricultural run-off are often responsible for the spread of AMR in marine and freshwater ecosystems. Rescued seals (n = 25) were used as sentinels to investigate the levels of AMR in the Irish coastal ecosystem. Faecal swabs were collected from these animals and bacterial isolates (E. coli and cefotaxime-resistant non-E. coli) from each swab were selected for further investigation. E. coli isolates were characterised in terms of phylogenetic group typing, AMR, and virulence factors. All E. coli isolates investigated in this study (n = 39) were ampicillin resistant while 26 (66.6%) were multi-drug resistant (MDR). Resistance genes blaOXA−1 and blaTEM−1 were detected in 16/39 and 6/39 isolates, respectively. Additionally, virulence factors associated with adhesion (sfa, papA, and papC) and siderophores (fyuA and iutA) were identified. An additional 19 faecal cefotaxime-resistant non-E. coli isolates were investigated for the presence of β-lactamase encoding genes. These isolates were identified as presumptive Leclercia, Pantoea and Enterobacter, however, none were positive for the presence of the genes investigated. To the authors knowledge this is the first study reporting the detection of blaOXA−1 and blaTEM−1 in phocid faecal E. coli in Europe. These results highlight the importance of marine mammals as sentinels for the presence and spread of AMR in the marine and coastal environment. © Copyright © 2021 Vale, Shubin, Cummins, Leonard and Barry. | amikacin; amoxicillin plus clavulanic acid; ampicillin; bacterial protein; beta lactamase; beta lactamase OXA 1; beta lactamase TEM 1; cefalexin; cefotaxime; cefovecin; cefpodoxime; ceftiofur; chloramphenicol; cotrimoxazole; DNA fragment; enrofloxacin; fyua protein; gentamicin; imipenem; iuta protein; marbofloxacin; nitrofurantoin; papa protein; papc protein; piperacillin; polymyxin B; sfa protein; siderophore; tetracycline; tobramycin; unclassified drug; virulence factor; ampicillin resistance; animal experiment; animal health; animal tissue; antibiotic sensitivity; Article; bacterial virulence; bacterium isolation; cefotaxime resistance; coastal waters; controlled study; ecosystem health; Enterobacter; Escherichia coli; feces analysis; freshwater environment; Halichoerus grypus; hospital waste; marine mammal; molecular phylogeny; multidrug resistance; nonhuman; One Health; Phocidae; sewage treatment | antimicrobial resistance; E. coli; One Health; seals; virulence factors; β-lactamases |
| Rapid discovery and detection of haemaphysalis longicornis through the use of passive surveillance and collaboration: Building a state tick-surveillance network | Between March 2019 and February 2020, Asian long-horned ticks (Haemaphysalis longicornis Neumann, 1901) were discovered and collected for the first time in one middle and seven eastern Tennessee counties, facilitated by a newly developed passive and collaborative tick-surveillance network. Network collaborators included federal, state, county, university, and private resource personnel working with companion animals, livestock, and wildlife. Specimens were collected primarily from dogs and cattle, with initial detections of female adult stage ticks by stakeholders associated with parasitology positions (e.g., entomologists and veterinary parasitologists). Initial county tick detections were confirmed with morphological and molecular identifications, and then screened for the presence of animal-associated pathogens (Anaplasma marginale, Babesia species, Ehrlichia species, and Theileria orientalis), for which all tests were negative. Herein, we describe the identification and confirmation of these tick specimens as well as other results of the surveillance collaboration. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. | Anaplasma; Animals; Cattle; Dogs; Female; Ixodidae; Theileria; Tick-Borne Diseases; Ticks; Anaplasma marginale; Babesia; Ehrlichia; Haemaphysalis longicornis; Theileria orientalis; cytochrome c oxidase; detection method; network analysis; pathogenicity; stakeholder; tick; Anaplasma marginale; Article; Babesia; DNA extraction; Ehrlichia; female; Haemaphysalis longicornis; haplotype; livestock; male; nonhuman; One Health; passive surveillance; Rhipicephalus sanguineus; Sanger sequencing; single nucleotide polymorphism; Theileria; zoonosis; Anaplasma; animal; bovine; dog; Ixodidae; Theileria; tick; tick borne disease | Collaboration; Detection; Distribution zoonoses; OneHealth; Tick |
| System Thinking and Citizen Participation Is Still Missing in One Health Initiatives – Lessons From Fifteen Evaluations | Tackling complex public health challenges requires integrated approaches to health, such as One Health (OH). A key element of these approaches is the integration of knowledge across sectors, disciplines and stakeholders. It is not yet clear which elements of knowledge integration need endorsement to achieve best outcomes. This paper assesses 15 OH initiatives in 16 African, Asian and European countries to identify opportunities to improve knowledge integration and to investigate geographic influences on knowledge integration capacities. Two related evaluation tools, both relying on semi-quantitative questionnaires, were applied to two sets of case studies. In one tool, the questions relate to operations and infrastructure, while the other assigns questions to the three phases of “design,” “implementation,” and “evaluation” of the project life cycle. In both, the question scores are aggregated using medians. For analysis, extreme values were identified to highlight strengths and weaknesses. Seven initiatives were assessed by a single evaluator external to the initiative, and the other eight initiatives were jointly assessed by several internal and external evaluators. The knowledge integration capacity was greatest during the project implementation stage, and lowest during the evaluation stage. The main weaknesses pointing towards concrete potential for improvement were identified to be a lack of consideration of systemic characteristics, missing engagement of external stakeholders and poor bridging of knowledge, amplified by the absence of opportunities to learn and evolve in a collective process. Most users were unfamiliar with the systems approach to evaluation and found the use of the tools challenging, but they appreciated the new perspective and saw benefits in the ensuing reflections. We conclude that systems thinking and associated practises for OH require not only specific education in OH core competencies, but also methodological and institutional measures to endorse broad participation. To facilitate meta-analyses and generic improvement of integrated approaches to health we suggest including knowledge integration processes as elements to report according to the COHERE guidelines. © Copyright © 2021 Hitziger, Berezowski, Dürr, Falzon, Léchenne, Lushasi, Markosyan, Mbilo, Momanyi, Özçelik, Prejit, Zinsstag and Rüegg. | Europe; One Health; Europe; One Health | disease surveillance; evaluation; governance; knowledge integration; One Health; project life cycle; social determinants of health; transdisciplinarity |
| Food security and safety mismatch in low-income settings: Evidence from milk produced by smallholders in semiarid Paraíba, Northeastern Brazil | Small-scale dairy production plays a relevant socioeconomic role contributing to improve food security in low income rural settings, such as semiarid Brazil. Milk is mainly supplied to local communities, either distributed by government programs to schools and day-care units, or commercialized privately to final consumers or cheesemakers. However, there is a lack of information about the potential public health hazards associated with milk. The aim of this study was to investigate antimicrobial resistance phenotypes, the presence of enterotoxin-encoding genes and genotypic relatedness of Staphylococcus spp. from raw milk samples in the semi-arid Paraiba. High antimicrobial resistant rates were observed for beta-lactams, including penicillin, ampicillin and ceftazidime. Although 14% of the isolates were phenotypically resistant to oxacillin, mecA gene was not detected among S. aureus. Almost 50% of the isolates harbored at least one enterotoxin-encoding gene. Higher genotypic relatedness was observed among staphylococci from closely-related farms, suggesting geographic spread of certain strains. In order to prevent potential microbiological risks related to milk consumption in the region, continuous efforts towards the improvement of raw milk quality are encouraged, including good production practices, such as those related to milk refrigeration on the farms and efficient pasteurization. © 2021 Elsevier Ltd | Brazil; Paraiba; environmental samples (Staphylococcus); Staphylococcus; Staphylococcus aureus; commercialization; food industry; food security; genotype; low income population; milk; public health; relatedness; semiarid region; smallholder | Antimicrobial resistance; Dairy products; One health; Staphylococcal enterotoxin-encodig genes; Staphylococcus |
| Trends in the Epidemiology of Leishmaniasis in the City of Barcelona (1996–2019) | Background: Leishmaniasis is a neglected zoonosis produced by 20 different flagellated parasites of the Leishmania genus, a protozoan transmitted to humans and other vertebrates by the bite of dipteran insects of the Phlebotominae subfamily. It is endemic in Mediterranean countries and the number of cases is expected to increase due to climate change and migration. Prioritizing public health interventions for prevention and control is essential. The objective was to characterize the epidemiology and temporal trends in the incidence of human leishmaniasis in the city of Barcelona, between the years 1996 and 2019. Methods: A population-based, analytical observational study among residents in the city of Barcelona was conducted of all the cases of leishmaniasis reported between 1996 and 2019 to the Public Health Agency. The epidemiological survey contains clinical, diagnostic, and epidemiological data, including contact with suspicious mammals or insects. Annual incidence-rates were calculated by sex, age, and country of origin. Chi-square tests were used to assess association between studied risk factors, periods of time and type of leishmaniasis. Results: During the study period a total of 177 cases of leishmaniasis were reported in Barcelona, being 74.6% (n = 132) of the total cases in Spanish born, although within the foreign-born population the incidence was higher. Median age was 34 years (IQR = 10–48) and 121 (66.8%) were male. The main type was cutaneous (46%) followed by visceral (35.1%). The cumulative incidence was 0.47 per 100,000 inhabitants, with the highest incidence found in 2017 (1.60 per 100,000 inhabitants). A higher incidence was observed in the 0–4-year-old group (1.73 per 100,000 inhabitants), but increased during the study period for all age groups. There was an increase of foreign origin cases, and a decrease in the number of cases associated to any immunosuppression. Conclusion: In Barcelona, leishmaniasis incidence continues to be higher in people under 5 years of age, and 25–64 years old males, but it has also increased in population from foreign country of birth. There is an increase of the cases since 2016, probably due to the changes in the notification system, increasing the diagnosis of cutaneous leishmaniasis. Improvements in the current surveillance system are needed. Notification of the disease, vector, and reservoir control activities are also essential for the control of the disease. © Copyright © 2021 Palma, Mercuriali, Figuerola, Montalvo, Bueno-Marí, Millet, Simón, Masdeu and Rius. | adolescent; adult; aged; Article; child; controlled study; cutaneous leishmaniasis; female; human; incidence; infant; Leishmania braziliensis; Leishmania donovani; leishmaniasis; major clinical study; male; middle aged; nonhuman; observational study; population; risk factor; serology; trend study; visceral leishmaniasis; World Health Organization | infectious disease; leishmania; One Health; parasitology; Phlebotomus; public health surveillance; surveillance; zoonosis |
| Zoonotic parasites in farmed exotic animals in China: Implications to public health | Several species of wild mammals are farmed in China as part of the rural development and poverty alleviation, including fur animals, bamboo rats, and macaque monkeys. Concerns have been raised on the potential dispersal of pathogens to humans and other farm animals brought in from native habitats. Numerous studies have been conducted on the genetic identity and public health potential of Cryptosporidium spp., Giardia duodenalis, and Enterocytozoon bieneusi in these newly farmed exotic animals. The data generated have shown a high prevalence of the pathogens in farmed wildlife, probably due to the stress from the short captivity and congregation of large numbers of susceptible animals. Host adaptation at species/genotype and subtype levels has reduced the potential for cross-species and zoonotic transmission of pathogens, but the farm environment appears to favor the transmission of some species, genotypes, and subtypes, with reduced pathogen diversity compared with their wild relatives. Most genotypes and subtypes of the pathogens detected appear to be brought in from their native habitats. A few of the subtypes have emerged as human pathogens. One Health measures should be developed to slow the dispersal of indigenous pathogens among farmed exotic animals and prevent their spillover to other farm animals and humans. © 2021 The Author(s) | Article; bacterium detection; China; cost effectiveness analysis; Cryptosporidium; disease surveillance; dog; Enterocytozoon bieneusi; exotic animal; farm animal; gene sequence; gene structure; genetic polymorphism; genetic variability; genotype; Giardia intestinalis; nonhuman; phylogeny; physiological stress; polymerase chain reaction; prevalence; public health; rhesus monkey; ruminant; Toxoplasma gondii; zoonotic transmission | Cryptosporidium; Enterocytozoon bieneusi; Giardia duodenalis; One health; Wildlife farming; Zoonosis |
| Feline sporotrichosis: social vulnerability and prioritization of geographic areas in Guarulhos, SP, Brazil; [Esporotricose felina: vulnerabilidade social e priorização de áreas geográficas em Guarulhos, SP, Brasil] | Over the past two decades, many Brazilian cities have been reporting an increasing incidence and spread of feline sporotrichosis. The disease is neglected, and little is known about the causal processes underlying its epidemic occurrence. This study characterized the spatiotemporal dynamics of feline sporotrichosis in Guarulhos. Moreover, we proposed and tested a causal explanation for its occurrence and zoonotic transmission, giving a key role to social vulnerability. A direct acyclic graph represented the causal explanation, while Bayesian spatial models supported its test as well as the attribution of a risk-based priority index to the census tracts of the city. Between 2011 and 2017, the disease grew exponentially and the spatial spread increased. The model findings showed a dose-response pattern between an index of social vulnerability and the incidence of feline sporotrichosis. This pattern was not strictly monotonic, so some census tracts received a higher priority index than others with higher vulnerability. According to our causal explanation, there will not be effective prevention of feline and zoonotic sporotrichosis as long as social inequities continue imposing precarious livelihoods. © 2021, Universidade de Sao Paulo. Faculdade de Medicina Veterinaria e Zootecnia. All rights reserved. | itraconazole; potassium iodide; animal experiment; animal tissue; Article; cat; clinical monitoring; disease transmission; DNA extraction; epidemic; epidemiological surveillance; fractional anisotropy; fungus culture; histopathology; incidence; nonhuman; prevalence; risk factor; seasonal variation; sinus rhythm; social vulnerability; sporotrichosis; zoonosis; zoonotic transmission | Bayesian models; Epidemiological surveillance; Neglected diseases; One Health of Peripheries; Zoonoses |
| Exploring the Antibiotic Resistance Burden in Livestock, Livestock Handlers and Their Non-Livestock Handling Contacts: A One Health Perspective | Antibiotics are freqeuently used in the livestock sector in low- and middle-income countries for treatment, prophylaxis, and growth promotion. However, there is limited information into the zoonotic prevalence and dissemination patterns of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) within these environments. In this study we used pig farming in Thailand as a model to explore AMR; 156 pig farms were included, comprising of small-sized (<50 sows) and medium-sized (≥100 sows) farms, where bacterial isolates were selectively cultured from animal rectal and human fecal samples. Bacterial isolates were subjected to antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST), and whole-genome sequencing. Our results indicate extensive zoonotic sharing of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) by horizontal gene transfer. Resistance to multiple antibiotics was observed with higher prevalence in medium-scale farms. Zoonotic transmission of colistin resistance in small-scale farms had a dissemination gradient from pigs to handlers to non-livestock contacts. We highly recommend reducing the antimicrobial use in animals’ feeds and medications, especially the last resort drug colistin. © Copyright © 2021 Hickman, Leangapichart, Lunha, Jiwakanon, Angkititrakul, Magnusson, Sunde and Järhult. | ampicillin; antibiotic agent; cefotaxime; ceftazidime; cephalosporin; chloramphenicol; ciprofloxacin; colistin; extended spectrum beta lactamase; fosfomycin; gentamicin; meropenem; rifampicin; tigecycline; trimethoprim; animal cell; animal experiment; animal model; antibiotic resistance; antibiotic sensitivity; Article; bacterium culture; bacterium isolate; colistin resistance; controlled study; DNA extraction; Escherichia coli; extended spectrum beta lactamase producing Escherichia coli; feces; genotype; horizontal gene transfer; human; livestock; matrix assisted laser desorption ionization time of flight mass spectrometry; minimum inhibitory concentration; multidrug resistance; multilocus sequence typing; nonhuman; One Health; phylogenetic tree; pig; pig farming; prevalence; quality control; rectal swab; whole genome sequencing; zoonotic transmission | antibiotic resistance; E. coli; livestock; meat-production; one-health approach; pigs; zoonotic transmission |
| Antimicrobial use in brazilian swine herds: Assessment of use and reduction examples | Brazil, as a major pig producer, is currently experiencing the widespread use of antimicrobials as a serious issue to be addressed. For measures to be taken in this direction, the extent of the problem must be known. The goal of this study was to evaluate the use of antimicrobials in 25 Brazilian swine herds. Antimicrobial use from birth to slaughter was correlated with biosecurity and productivity. After the first assessment (2016; M0), 13 herds implemented good practices to reduce antimicrobial use. Four years after the implementation of these measures (2020; M1), data about antimicrobial usage from these herds were collected. The results of the first assessment (M0) demonstrated a troublesome scenario: the mean value of antimicrobials used was 358.4 mg/kg of pig produced; the median of the pig’s lifetime exposure to antimicrobials was 73.7%, and the median number of drugs used was seven. A positive correlation between the antimicrobials consumed and the pig’s antimicrobial exposure time was detected. Nevertheless, these data did not correlate with biosecurity score or productivity. A significant difference was detected in M1, where a median 30% reduction in antimicrobials consumed was detected. There was also a 44.3% reduction of the pig’s lifetime exposure to antimicrobials. The median number of drugs used was reduced from seven to five. Antimicrobial use did not always reflect the sanitary condition or the real therapeutic needs, easily leading to overuse. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. | Antimicrobial use; Biosecurity; Disease prevention; One health; Swine |
| Opportunities for Transdisciplinary Science to Mitigate Biosecurity Risks From the Intersectionality of Illegal Wildlife Trade With Emerging Zoonotic Pathogens | Existing collaborations among public health practitioners, veterinarians, and ecologists do not sufficiently consider illegal wildlife trade in their surveillance, biosafety, and security (SB&S) efforts even though the risks to health and biodiversity from these threats are significant. We highlight multiple cases to illustrate the risks posed by existing gaps in understanding the intersectionality of the illegal wildlife trade and zoonotic disease transmission. We argue for more integrative science in support of decision-making using the One Health approach. Opportunities abound to apply transdisciplinary science to sustainable wildlife trade policy and programming, such as combining on-the-ground monitoring of health, environmental, and social conditions with an understanding of the operational and spatial dynamics of illicit wildlife trade. We advocate for (1) a surveillance sample management system for enhanced diagnostic efficiency in collaboration with diverse and local partners that can help establish new or link existing surveillance networks, outbreak analysis, and risk mitigation strategies; (2) novel analytical tools and decision support models that can enhance self-directed local livelihoods by addressing monitoring, detection, prevention, interdiction, and remediation; (3) enhanced capacity to promote joint SB&S efforts that can encourage improved human and animal health, timely reporting, emerging disease detection, and outbreak response; and, (4) enhanced monitoring of illicit wildlife trade and supply chains across the heterogeneous context within which they occur. By integrating more diverse scientific disciplines, and their respective scientists with indigenous people and local community insight and risk assessment data, we can help promote a more sustainable and equitable wildlife trade. © Copyright © 2021 Aguirre, Gore, Kammer-Kerwick, Curtin, Heyns, Preiser and Shelley. | biosecurity; COVID-19; emerging infectious diseases; illegal wildlife trade; One Health; operations research; spatial analytics; transdisciplinarity |
| Building social-ecological system resilience to tackle antimicrobial resistance across the one health spectrum: Protocol for a mixed methods study | Background: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is an escalating global crisis with serious health, social, and economic consequences. Building social-ecological system resilience to reduce AMR and mitigate its impacts is critical. Objective: The aim of this study is to compare and assess interventions that address AMR across the One Health spectrum and determine what actions will help to build social and ecological capacity and readiness to sustainably tackle AMR. Methods: We will apply social-ecological resilience theory to AMR in an explicit One Health context using mixed methods and identify interventions that address AMR and its key pressure antimicrobial use (AMU) identified in the scientific literature and in the gray literature using a web-based survey. Intervention impacts and the factors that challenge or contribute to the success of interventions will be determined, triangulated against expert opinions in participatory workshops and complemented using quantitative time series analyses. We will then identify indicators using regression modeling, which can predict national and regional AMU or AMR dynamics across animal and human health. Together, these analyses will help to quantify the causal loop diagrams (CLDs) of AMR in the European and Southeast Asian food system contexts that are developed by diverse stakeholders in participatory workshops. Then, using these CLDs, the long-term impacts of selected interventions on AMR will be explored under alternate future scenarios via simulation modeling and participatory workshops. A publicly available learning platform housing information about interventions on AMR from a One Health perspective will be developed to help decision makers identify promising interventions for application in their jurisdictions. Results: To date, 669 interventions have been identified in the scientific literature, 891 participants received a survey invitation, and 4 expert feedback and 4 model-building workshops have been conducted. Time series analysis, regression modeling of national and regional indicators of AMR dynamics, and scenario modeling activities are anticipated to be completed by spring 2022. Ethical approval has been obtained from the University of Waterloo’s Office of Research Ethics (ethics numbers 40519 and 41781). Conclusions: This paper provides an example of how to study complex problems such as AMR, which require the integration of knowledge across sectors and disciplines to find sustainable solutions. We anticipate that our study will contribute to a better understanding of what actions to take and in what contexts to ensure long-term success in mitigating AMR and its impact and provide useful tools (eg, CLDs, simulation models, and public databases of compiled interventions) to guide management and policy decisions. © 2021 JMIR Publications Inc. All rights reserved. | Antimicrobial resistance; Interventions; One Health; Participatory; Resilience; Social-ecological system; Systems dynamics; Transdisciplinary |
| Simultaneous Circulation of DENV, CHIKV, ZIKV and SARS-CoV-2 in Brazil: an Inconvenient Truth | The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 has prompted the mobilization of a network of public health laboratories to diagnose COVID-19 patients, trace contacts and identify hot-spot areas for active community transmission at the expense of arbovirus diagnosis and control practices. In this article, we discuss the unprecedented challenges faced by the Brazilian public health system in dealing with the incursion of SARS-CoV-2 in the midst of ongoing triple arboviral epidemics caused by dengue, chikungunya, and Zika virus. Finally, we highlight the importance of the introduction of one health approach as an effective inter-disciplinary response and management to mitigate the catastrophic effect caused by these pathogens. © 2020 | Arbovirus; Article; Brazil; Chikungunya virus; contact examination; coronavirus disease 2019; Dengue virus; disease hotspot; disease surveillance; epidemic; incidence; infection control; pandemic; public health; seasonal variation; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; social distancing; vector control; virus transmission; Zika virus | Arbovirus; Chikungunya; Coronavirus; Dengue; One health; SARS-CoV-2 |
| The health equity network of the Americas: Inclusion, commitment, and action; [La Red de las Américas para la Equidad en Salud: Inclusión, compromiso y acción] | The Health Equity Network of the Americas (HENA) is a multidisciplinary network that promotes knowledge sharing and intersectoral action for equity in health and human rights in the Americas. The objectives of HENA are: 1) to share successful experiences in the development of interventions, considering the social determinants and determination of health, to achieve participatory and community-based health responses; 2) to analyze the health, social, political, environmental and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic; 3) to identify the effects of pandemic care on populations most at risk because of their age and pre-existing health conditions; 4) examine the situation at borders and population movements in the spread of the pandemic and its effects on migrant populations; 5) propose strategies to ensure access to comprehensive care for pregnant women in order to reduce maternal and neonatal suffering, morbidity, and mortality; and 6) analyze violations of human rights and the right to health of historically marginalized populations, including street dwellers and other communities that depend on public spaces and the street for survival. The analytical and intervention models for health equity at HENA are based on various approaches, including social medicine, social epidemiology, medical anthropology, human ecology, and One Health. © 2021 Pan American Health Organization. All rights reserved. | Central America; North America; South America; COVID-19; economic impact; equity; health risk; human rights; knowledge; age distribution; Article; collaborative care team; collaborative learning; community care; conceptual framework; coronavirus disease 2019; ecology; environmental impact; health care access; health equity; health equity network of the americas; health impact assessment; high risk population; homelessness; human; human rights abuse; intersectoral collaboration; maternal morbidity; maternal mortality; medical anthropology; migrant; newborn morbidity; newborn mortality; One Health; organization and management; pandemic; political system; population movement pattern; pregnant woman; primary health care; right to health; social determinants of health; social medicine; socioeconomics | Americas; Health equity; Intersectoral collaboration; One health; Social determinants of health |
| Influence of pig farming on human Gut Microbiota: role of airborne microbial communities | It has been hypothesized that both genetics and diet influence the composition of the human cecal microbiota. However, it remains unclear whether and how occupational exposure to microbes impacts the microbial communities in human guts. Using a One Health approach, we visited pig farms (n = 26) and collected stool specimens from pig workers (n = 59), pig barn air samples (n = 19), and rectal swabs from pigs at three different growth stages (n = 144). Stool samples from cattle workers were included as a control group (n = 22). Each sample’s microbiota was characterized using 16S rRNA gene sequencing and the DADA2 pipeline. We obtained a significantly different clustering of the microbial compositions of pig and cattle workers by permutational multivariate analysis of variance (PERMANOVA; P < .001). Workers primarily exposed to pigs had higher relative abundances of Prevotellaceae and less Bacteroidaceae than workers exposed to cattle. We also found that the microbial compositions of pig workers’ stool samples shared extensive fractions with the samples from their pigs. We also identified amplicon sequencing variants (ASVs) in the airborne microbiota which were likely involved in zoonotic transmission events. We hypothesize that ASVs originating from pig feces are aerosolized and, through breathing, get trapped in the pig farm workers’ upper respiratory tract from where they can get swallowed. Consequently, some of the animal associated ASVs are transferred into the gastrointestinal tracts (GITs) which leads to changes in the composition of the human gut microbiota. The importance of this finding for human health must be investigated further. © 2021 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. | Air; Air Microbiology; Animals; Bacteria; Cattle; Farmers; Farms; Feces; Gastrointestinal Microbiome; Gastrointestinal Tract; Humans; Occupational Exposure; Prospective Studies; Rectum; Swine; RNA 16S; air; agricultural worker; airborne microorganism; amplicon; animal experiment; animal model; animal tissue; Article; bacterial growth; Bacteroidaceae; Bacteroides; bioinformatics; cluster analysis; community structure; controlled study; DNA extraction; feces analysis; female; Firmicutes; gene sequence; growth curve; intestine flora; Megasphaera; microbial community; microbial diversity; nonhuman; occupational exposure; phylogenetic tree; pig farming; pipeline; polymerase chain reaction; Prevotellaceae; Proteobacteria; rectal swab; sequence analysis; upper respiratory tract; zoonotic transmission; agricultural land; animal; bacterium; bovine; classification; feces; gastrointestinal tract; genetics; growth, development and aging; human; isolation and purification; microbiology; pig; prospective study; rectum | bioaerosol; human stool; microbial communities; Occupational exposure; one health; pig; pig farming |
| Probable rabies in a child in a Bhutanese town bordering India, 2020 | Rabies is a neglected tropical disease that causes mortality and high economic burden in many developing countries. Rabies is a vaccine-preventable disease if timely post-exposure prophylaxis is available after animal exposure. The control of rabies requires limiting the transmission of the virus in the animal reservoir, effective public health measures to control outbreaks and increasing accessibility and uptake of rabies post-exposure prophylaxis. Bhutan is a small Himalayan country where rabies is endemic. In this article, we describe the death of a 3-year-old female child due to probable rabies in a Bhutanese village located along the border with India. The child had a furious form of rabies with encephalitic syndrome developing 57 days after a category III dog bite on the chest. The child was managed at a district hospital with the available resources. This is the first rabies death in Bhutan in the last 5 years and the 18th since 2006. This case report focuses on the efforts required to increase the timely uptake of post-exposure prophylaxis in a free healthcare system in Bhutan. © The Author(s) 2021. | aciclovir; C reactive protein; ceftriaxone; dexamethasone; diazepam; paracetamol; Article; Babinski reflex; bacterial meningitis; breathing rate; case report; cerebrospinal fluid; child; clinical article; dog bite; dog disease; female; flying phobia; glucose blood level; human; hypersalivation; kidney function test; leukocyte count; liver function test; lumbar puncture; neuroimaging; neutrophilia; penetrating trauma; preschool child; pulse rate; rabies; Rabies virus; scrub typhus; sepsis associated encephalopathy; stridor; tachycardia; tachypnea; tonic clonic seizure; vaccine preventable disease | Dog diseases; One Health; rabies virus; vaccine-preventable diseases; zoonotic infection |
| Wildlife as Sentinels of Antimicrobial Resistance in Germany? | The presence of bacteria carrying antimicrobial resistance (AMR) genes in wildlife is an indicator that resistant bacteria of human or livestock origin are widespread in the environment. In addition, it could represent an additional challenge for human health, since wild animals could act as efficient AMR reservoirs and epidemiological links between human, livestock and natural environments. The aim of this study was to investigate the occurrence and the antibiotic resistance patterns of several bacterial species in certain wild animals in Germany, including wild boars (Sus scrofa), roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) and wild ducks (family Anatidae, subfamily Anatinae) and geese (family Anatidae, subfamily Anserinae). In the framework of the German National Zoonoses Monitoring Program, samples from hunted wild boars, roe deer and wild ducks and geese were collected nationwide in 2016, 2017, and 2019, respectively. Fecal samples were tested for the presence of Salmonella spp. (in wild boars and wild ducks and geese), Campylobacter spp. (in roe deer and wild ducks and geese), Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia (E.) coli (STEC), commensal E. coli and extended-spectrum beta-lactamase- (ESBL) or ampicillinase class C (AmpC) beta-lactamase-producing E. coli (in wild boars, roe deer and wild ducks and geese). In addition, the presence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) was investigated in nasal swabs from wild boars. Isolates obtained in the accredited regional state laboratories were submitted to the National Reference Laboratories (NRLs) for confirmation, characterization and phenotypic resistance testing using broth microdilution according to CLSI. AMR was assessed according to epidemiological cut-offs provided by EUCAST. Salmonella spp. were isolated from 13 of 552 (2.4%) tested wild boar fecal samples, but absent in all 101 samples from wild ducks and geese. Nine of the 11 isolates that were submitted to the NRL Salmonella were susceptible to all tested antimicrobial substances. Campylobacter spp. were isolated from four out of 504 (0.8%) roe deer fecal samples, but not from any of the samples from wild ducks and geese. Of the two isolates received in the NRL Campylobacter, neither showed resistance to any of the substances tested. From roe deer, 40.2% of the fecal samples (144 of 358) yielded STEC compared to 6.9% (37 of 536) from wild boars. In wild ducks and geese, no STEC isolates were found. Of 150 STEC isolates received in the NRL (24 from wild boars and 126 from roe deer), only one from each animal species showed resistance. Of the 219 isolates of commensal E. coli from wild boars tested for AMR, 210 were susceptible to all 14 tested substances (95.9%). In roe deer this proportion was even higher (263 of 269, 97.8%), whereas in wild ducks and geese this proportion was lower (41 of 49, 83.7%). Nevertheless, selective isolation of ESBL-/AmpC-producing E. coli yielded 6.5% (36 of 551) positive samples from wild boars, 2.3% (13 of 573) from roe deer and 9.8% (10 of 102) from wild ducks and geese. Among the 25 confirmed ESBL-/AmpC-producing isolates from wild boars, 14 (56.0%) showed resistance up to five classes of substances. This proportion was lower in roe deer (3 of 12, 25%) and higher in wild ducks and geese (7 of 10, 70%). None of the 577 nasal swabs from wild boars yielded MRSA. Results indicate that overall, the prevalence of resistant bacteria from certain wild animals in Germany is low, which may reflect not only the low level of exposure to antimicrobials but also the low level of resistant bacteria in the areas where these animals live and feed. However, despite this low prevalence, the patterns observed in bacteria from the wild animals included in this study are an indicator for specific resistance traits in the environment, including those to highest priority substances such as 3rd generation cephalosporins, fluoroquinolones and colistin. Therefore, also continuous monitoring of the occurrence of such bacteria in wildlife by selective isolation is advisable. Furthermore, the possible role of wildlife as reservoir and disperser of resistant bacteria would need to be assessed, as wild animals, and in particular wild ducks and geese could become spreaders of resistant bacteria given their capacity for long-range movements. © Copyright © 2021 Plaza-Rodríguez, Alt, Grobbel, Hammerl, Irrgang, Szabo, Stingl, Schuh, Wiehle, Pfefferkorn, Naumann, Kaesbohrer and Tenhagen. | beta lactamase AmpC; cephalosporin derivative; colistin; extended spectrum beta lactamase; quinolone derivative; antibiotic resistance; Article; bacterium isolate; bacterium isolation; broth dilution; Campylobacter; commensal Escherichia coli; controlled study; duck; Escherichia; Escherichia coli; European wild boar; extended spectrum beta lactamase producing Escherichia coli; feces microflora; Germany; goose; methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus; nonhuman; nose smear; prevalence; roe deer; Salmonella; serotype; wild animal; wildlife | antimicrobial resistance (AMR); cervids; Germany; monitoring; one health; wild bird; wild boar; zoonotic agents |
| Understanding eco-immunology of bacterial zoonoses and alternative therapeutics toward “One Health” | The current review identifies key bacterial zoonoses, the understanding of comparative immunology, evolutionary trade-offs between emerging bacterial pathogens and their dynamics on both arms of immunity. The several gaps in the literature limit our understanding of spread of prominent bacterial zoonotic diseases and the host-pathogen interactions that may change in response to environmental and social factors. Gaining a more comprehensive understanding of how anthropogenic activities affects the spread of emerging zoonotic diseases, is essential for predicting and mitigating future disease emergence through fine-tuning of surveillance and control measures with respect to different pathogens. This review highlights the urgent need to increase understanding of the comparative immunity of animal reservoirs, design of vaccines according to the homology in host-pathogen interactions, and the alternative strategies to counter the risk of bacterial pathogenic spillover to humans with eventual spread of zoonotic diseases. © 2021. All rights reserved. | antiinfective agent; hydrolase; phytochemical; polypeptide antibiotic agent; Article; bacterial cell wall; bacteriophage; diet; ecology; evolution; human; immune system; immunology; intestine flora; nonhuman; One Health; pathogen clearance; zoonosis | alternative antimicrobials; bacterial zoonoses; comparative immunology; One Health |
| Future risk of bovine tuberculosis (Mycobacterium bovis) breakdown in cattle herds 2013–2018: A dominance analysis approach | Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) remains a significant endemic pathogen of cattle herds, despite multi‐decadal control programmes being in place in several countries. Understanding the risks of future bTB breakdown (BD) and the associated characteristics of herds and index breakdowns could help inform risk categorisation. Such risk categories could then contribute to tailored management and policies. Here, we estimated the future risk of herd BD for the cohort of herds that were dere-stricted during 2013 in Ireland using multivariable logit regression models, with a dominance analysis approach. One third of herds that were derestricted in 2013 experienced a breakdown during the follow‐up five year period (1469/4459; 33%). BD length was a significant predictor of future risk, primarily driven by long BDs > 230 days relative to short BDs < 130 days (OR 95%CI: 1.157–1.851), as was having had a previous BD (OR 95%CI: 1.012–1.366). Herd‐size was the dominant predictor of future risk (accounted for 46% of predicted variance), suggesting significant increase in risk of future breakdown with increasing (log) herd‐size (OR 95%CI: 1.378–1.609). There was significant spatial variation in future risk across counties, and it was the second most dominant predictor of future risk (25% of predicted variance). The size of index breakdowns was not a strong predictor of future risk over a 5‐year period. These findings can inform a risk‐based policy development. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. | Cattle; Ireland; One health epidemiology; TB |
| Antibiogram imprints of E. coli O157:H7 recovered from irrigation water and agricultural soil samples collected from two district municipalities in South Africa | The antibiogram signatures of E. coli O157:H7 (n=46) recovered from irrigation water and agricultural soil samples were assessed using the standard disc diffusion method against a panel of 16 antibiotics and molecular methods. The prevalent antibiotic resistance patterns follow the order: cefuroxime (95.7%), nitrofurantoin (93.5%), ampicillin (73.9%), chloramphenicol (71.7%), cefotaxime (60.9%) and trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (58.7%). The antibiotic resistance genes detected in the phenotypically resistant isolates include: tetA, tetB, tetC, catII, sulI, sulII, FOX-, CIT-, MOX-, EBC-type plasmid-mediated AmpC, and bla SHV extended-spectrum beta-lactamase. We conclude that irrigation water and agricultural soil are important reservoirs of multidrug-resistant E. coli O157:H7, hence a potential risk to South Africa’s one-health policy. © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. | Agricultural robots; Antibiotics; Escherichia coli; Health risks; Reservoirs (water); Soil surveys; Soils; Water; Agricultural soils; Antibiotic resistance; Antibiotic resistance genes; Disc diffusion methods; Irrigation waters; Molecular methods; Multidrug resistants; Potential risks; Irrigation | antibiotics; antimicrobial-resistance; E. coli O157:H7; one-health; soil; water |
| Rift valley fever in Africa with the emerging interest in Libya | Rift valley fever (RVF) is an acute vector-borne viral zoonotic disease of domestic and wild ruminants. The RVF virus (RVFV) belonging to the Phlebovirus genus of the Bunyaviridae family causes this disease. Studies have shown that mosquitoes are the vectors that transmit RVFV. Specifically, Aedes and Culex mosquito species are among the many vectors of this virus, which affects not only sheep, goats, buffalo, cattle, and camels but also human beings. Since the 30s of the last century, RVF struck Africa, and to a lesser extent, Asian continents, with subsequent episodes of epizootic, epidemic, and sporadic outbreaks. These outbreaks, therefore, resulted in the cumulative loss of thousands of human lives, thereby disrupting the livestock market or only those with seropositive cases. After that outbreak episode, RVF was not reported in Libya until January 13, 2020, where it was reported for the 1st time in a flock of sheep and goats in the southern region of the country. Although insufficient evidence to support RVF clinical cases among the confirmed seropositive animals exists, neither human cases nor death were reported in Libya. Yet, the overtime expansion of RVF kinetics in the Libyan neighborhoods, in addition to the instability and security vacuum experienced in the country, lack of outbreak preparedness, and the availability of suitable climatic and disease vector factors, makes this country a possible future scene candidate for RVF expansion. Urgently, strengthening veterinary services (VS) and laboratory diagnostic capacities, including improvement of monitoring and surveillance activity programs, should be implemented in areas at risk (where imported animals crossing borders from Libyan neighborhoods and competent vectors are found) at national, sub-national, and regional levels. The Libyan government should also implement a tripartite framework (one health approach) among the veterinary public health, public health authority, and environmental sanitation sectors to implement RVF surveillance protocols, along with an active partnership with competent international bodies (OIE, FAO, and WHO). Therefore, this review comprises the most updated data regarding the epidemiological situation of RVF infections and its socioeconomic impacts on African and Asian continents, and also emphasize the emerging interest of RVF in Libya. Copyright: Mahmoud, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. | Aedes; Africa; Article; climate change; Culex; disease severity; disease surveillance; early diagnosis; epidemic; health care quality; infection risk; Libyan Arab Jamahiriya; livestock; mortality rate; mosquito vector; public health; Rift Valley fever; Rift Valley fever virus; ruminant; socioeconomics; veterinary medicine; viral zoonosis; virus transmission | Africa; epidemiology; Libya; one health; rift valley fever |
| One Health Information Management: Health System Reforms to Support Social Well-Being in Thailand | Background and Aim: The information about the health problems interaction between animal health, ecosystems, and human health that the “One Health (OH)” concept is becoming more complex. This study focused on OH information in Thailand to develop guidelines for establishing a “One Health Information Management (OHIM)” system by drafting the structure of an OH information strategic plan. Materials and Methods: A mixed methods approach was used and included questionnaires, interviews, focus groups, and observations in agencies across the country to gather evidence about actions relating to the OH concept, such as the Memorandum of Agreements between the Ministry of Public Health and eight main agencies. Results: The study concentrated on the key issue that understanding the OH concept is difficult, as the environment and human health sectors include less knowledge of this concept than the animal health sector. Further, there are concerns about the comprehension of OH concepts, and high-level information management and data storage relating to OH, including medicine, cattle, wild animal, environment, and environmental resource management. Data from OH researchers and publicly accessible government data are less integrated and inconsistently managed across agencies. Conclusion: The study of OHIM strategic development should consist of four important points: (1) Clarity in the OH concept, (2) OH staff development, (3) development of an OHIM data network and innovation, and (4) research and academic development, and global OHIM academic exchange. All of these points will lead to health system reforms to support social well-being. Youthao and Amornsiriphong. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/ by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/ publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. | animal health; article; bovine; comprehension; controlled study; government; human; human experiment; information storage; interview; medical information system; nonhuman; One Health; public health; questionnaire; resource management; social well-being; Thailand; wild animal | health; health information management; one health; one health information; social well-being; Thailand |
| Implementation challenges of an integrated One Health surveillance system in humanitarian settings: A qualitative study in Palestine | Objectives: Several factors have changed interactions between people, animals, plants, and the environment – renewing the relevance of the One Health surveillance system in the fight against zoonotic diseases such as COVID-19. Therefore, this study aimed to explore barriers to implementing an integrated One Health surveillance system in Palestine. Methods: This qualitative study was conducted from April 2020 until August 2020. Data were collected using semi-structured interview guides. Seven key stakeholders were interviewed during data collection. A thematic analysis was performed. Results: Four overarching themes emerged explaining barriers to integrated implementation of the One Health surveillance system. They are lack of policy coherence, limited financial resources, poor governance and leadership, and lack of One Health training programmes. Conclusion: Improved understanding of the transmission and effective control (including One Health approach) of zoonotic disease and better governance and leadership are critical in the diseases that threaten public health, such as the COVID-19. © The Author(s) 2021. | Article; coronavirus disease 2019; disease transmission; funding; health care planning; health care policy; health survey; human; leadership; One Health; Palestine; qualitative research; semi structured interview; thematic analysis; training; zoonosis | challenges; COVID-19 pandemic; One Health; Palestine; zoonotic diseases |
| Tuberculosis outbreak in intensive swine farming from Southern Brazil; [Surto de tuberculose em suínos de criação intensiva no Sul do Brasil] | Mycobacterium tuberculosis var. bovis is the etiologic agent of animal tuberculosis (aTB), a neglected zoonotic disease. Animal tuberculosis can affect many species, including swine. aTB-consistent granulomas in these animals lead to carcass disposal, generating economic losses and posing risks to human health. In the present study, an aTB outbreak was identified at an intensive swine farming operation in Southern Brazil. Inspection during swine slaughter revealed aTB-suspected lesions, which were collected for diagnosis by histology, PCR, and bacterial isolation. The animals had no clinical signs of tuberculosis. Granulomatous lesions were identified in 0.73% (59/8,071) of the slaughtered swine, and were confirmed by histology. Nine samples were further examined by PCR and bacterial isolation, with 44.4% and 55.5% positive results, respectively. Data from abattoirs subjected to federal surveillance show an aTB prevalence in Brazil of <0.001%. The present data thus indicate a swine aTB outbreak in intensive breeding. Swine infection can be related to exposure to infected animals or to contaminated food or environment. Biosecurity measures must be taken to avoid aTB transmission. Although certified swine breeding farms adopt such measures, this report indicates that constant monitoring is crucial, and greater control in swine breeding and finishing units is required to prevent outbreaks and spread of tuberculosis. © 2021, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria. All rights reserved. | Mycobacterium tuberculosis var. bovis; One health; PCR; Pigs; Zoonosis |
| Animal Production With Restrictive Use of Antibiotics to Contain Antimicrobial Resistance in Sweden—A Qualitative Study | Antibacterial resistance (ABR), is a growing global threat to human and animal health. Efforts to contain ABR are urgently needed. This qualitative interview study explored perceptions of work to contain ABR among stakeholders in food animal production in Sweden, with focus on broiler production. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with a strategic sample of 13 stakeholders in different parts of production, from professionals at policy level, veterinary authorities, to poultry farmers and poultry veterinarians. Conventional inductive content analysis was used for data analysis. A latent theme, “Working in unison,” emerged, based on the consistency expressed by the informants when they discussed ABR, use of antibiotics, and animal health management. This theme was built on four domains representing the content of the interviews: Knowledge and engagement; Cooperation; Animal health concept; and Development in balance with economic prerequisites. According to the informants, ABR has not been an isolated issue in Sweden but has been included in a tradition of animal health and welfare, and actions have been driven by the industry or by government regulations. Veterinarians described how they worked closely with farmers. Farmers felt involved in the development of animal health management methods. The One Health concept was well-known among stakeholders at national level but not at farm level. Close cooperation between stakeholders seems to facilitate development of animal production with low use of antibiotics. © Copyright © 2021 Björkman, Röing, Sternberg Lewerin, Stålsby Lundborg and Eriksen. | antibiotic agent; agricultural worker; animal food; animal health; antibiotic resistance; Article; awareness; broiler; content analysis; cooperation; data analysis; economic aspect; food industry; human; infection control; knowledge; nonhuman; One Health; qualitative research; semi structured interview; Sweden; veterinarian | animal production; containing antibiotic resistance; one health; poultry; qualitative study; Sweden |
| Preventing pandemics by building bridges in eu policy and law | A successful strategy aimed at preventing the emergence and spread of Emerging Infectious Diseases – and therefore a strategy to avoid future pandemic scenarios – should take into account the human dependency on – and profound connection with nature and include not just health considerations but also animal welfare and health, agriculture and food production, environmental protection and climate action in all their facets, including spending and finances, and trade. In this light, policy and legislative acts not only need to be sufficiently ambitious to tackle the drivers behind the emergence of infectious diseases, but they also need to work in symbiosis, in synergy, to avoid that progress made in a certain field is eroded by a lack of ambition and foresight in another field. This research article aims to shed some light on the issue by considering key areas and key recent developments in EU law and policy. It shows how approaches and stances taken by the EU and by Member States frequently lack grit and ambition and are only limitedly synergetic and coher-ent with each other, often representing veritable missed opportunities both in terms of ambition and in building bridges across different fields. © 2021, Kluwer Law International. All rights reserved. | Europe; animal welfare; climate change; disease incidence; environmental legislation; environmental policy; environmental protection; European Union; health status; infectious disease; policy approach; policy development | Animal health law; Animal welfare law; CAP; Climate change; Covid-19; Environmental protection; EU Climate Law; EU health policy; One Health; Zoonoses |
| A universal RT-qPCR assay for “One Health” detection of influenza A viruses | The mutual dependence of human and animal health is central to the One Health initiative as an integrated strategy for infectious disease control and management. A crucial element of the One Health includes preparation and response to influenza A virus (IAV) threats at the human-animal interface. The IAVs are characterized by extensive genetic variability, they circulate among different hosts and can establish host-specific lineages. The four main hosts are: avian, swine, human and equine, with occasional transmission to other mammalian species. The host diversity is mirrored in the range of the RT-qPCR assays for IAV detection. Different assays are recommended by the responsible health authorities for generic IAV detection in birds, swine or humans. In order to unify IAV monitoring in different hosts and apply the One Health approach, we developed a single RT-qPCR assay for universal detection of all IAVs of all subtypes, species origin and global distribution. The assay design was centred on a highly conserved region of the IAV matrix protein (MP)-segment identified by a comprehensive analysis of 99,353 sequences. The reaction parameters were effectively optimised with efficiency of 93–97% and LOD95% of approximately ten IAV templates per reaction. The assay showed high repeatability, reproducibility and robustness. The extensive in silico evaluation demonstrated high inclusivity, i.e. perfect sequence match in the primers and probe binding regions, established as 94.6% for swine, 98.2% for avian and 100% for human H3N2, pandemic H1N1, as well as other IAV strains, resulting in an overall predicted detection rate of 99% on the analysed dataset. The theoretical predictions were confirmed and extensively validated by collaboration between six veterinary or human diagnostic laboratories on a total of 1970 specimens, of which 1455 were clinical and included a diverse panel of IAV strains. © 2021 Nagy et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. | Animals; Birds; Humans; Influenza A virus; Influenza A Virus, H1N1 Subtype; Influenza A Virus, H3N2 Subtype; Influenza in Birds; Influenza, Human; One Health; Orthomyxoviridae Infections; Reproducibility of Results; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; Swine; Swine Diseases; Article; avian influenza; computer model; controlled study; influenza A; Influenza A virus; Influenza A virus (H1N1); Influenza A virus (H3N2); limit of detection; nonhuman; real time polymerase chain reaction; reproducibility; swine influenza; virus detection; animal; bird; genetics; human; influenza; Influenza A virus; isolation and purification; One Health; orthomyxovirus infection; pig; procedures; reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction; swine disease; virology |
| Control of raw pork liver sausage production can reduce the prevalence of hev infection | After an acute hepatitis E (HEV) outbreak in Southern Switzerland, in January 2017 the local public health authorities started an active program of food chain control and public education. In this retrospective study, we analysed all laboratory-confirmed acute cases of HEV infection diagnosed between 2014 and 2020. In the period before the public health intervention, the number of cases increased steadily from 2014 (4 of 40 tests, 10%) reaching a peak in the last quarter of 2016 (42 of 285 tests, 14.7 %). Afterwards, the number of positive cases decreased steadily, reaching its lowest value (0.3%) in the second quarter of 2019. There was a statistically significant difference between the frequency of positive cases and period of testing, i.e., before and after the introduction of the public health interventions. Our study shows that active public health measures to control sausages containing raw pork liver can reduce the prevalence of HEV infection. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. | immunoglobulin G; immunoglobulin M; ribavirin; virus RNA; Article; blood transfusion; disease surveillance; food control; genotype; hepatitis E; Hepatitis E virus; human; Italy; kidney biopsy; meat; nucleic acid amplification; pork; prevalence; proteinuria; real time polymerase chain reaction; retrospective study; reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction; seroprevalence; virus transmission | Epidemiology; Food chain control; Hepatitis E; One health; Public health; Raw liver; Sausage |
| Nipah virus disease: Recent perspective and one health approach | Background: Nipah virus (NiV) first emerged in 1998 in Malaysia, causing an outbreak of respiratory illness and encephalitis in pigs. Pig-to-human transmission of NiV associated with severe febrile encephalitis was described, and it was thought to occur through close contact with infected animals. The first outbreak was reported in India in Siliguri, West Bengal in 2001 followed by Nadia, West Bengal and adjoining areas of Bangladesh in 2007, where an intermediate animal host was not identified, suggesting bat-to-human and human-to-human transmissions. Although it is extremely difficult to document the spillover event and ascertain crossing of trans-natural boundaries by bats and bringing new viruses in an unexposed population, efforts for source identification are important to understand the epidemiology of disease. As the disease transcends beyond one species and has shown to infect humans, it therefore requires the ‘One Health approach’ in which multiple sectors coordinate and work together to achieve better public health outcomes. Objective: We summarize the re-emergence and response of the Nipah virus outbreaks (NiVD) in Kerala, India, about 1800 kms away, a decade later in 2018 and 2019. The paper recapitulates involvement of various stakeholders from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Directorate of Health Research, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, State Health Department, State Animal Husbandry, District Administration, and multidisciplinary response mechanism during the NiVD outbreaks of 2018 and 2019. Methods: Information was collected from the Press Information Bureau (PIB), media/weekly alerts from the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP), news articles from print and electronic media, newsletters, advisories from the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Disease Outbreak News (DON), World Health Organization (WHO), and published papers from various stakeholders. Findings & Conclusion: The evidence of NiV in humans and bats, with samples collected from the outbreak sites, was laboratory confirmed. The multidisciplinary response mechanisms during the 2018 outbreak helped in further understanding the importance of the One Health approach for systemic and streamlined response utilizing existing surveillance systems. This was of utmost help in the subsequent outbreak of the disease that occurred during 2019, wherein there was no documented spread of disease from the index case and no mortality was observed. This success reiterates the need for institutionalizing the involvement and cooperation of various departments and organizations during public health emergencies, especially of Zoonotic diseases, using the One Health approach. © 2021 The Author(s). | Animals; Chiroptera; Disease Outbreaks; Henipavirus Infections; Nipah Virus; One Health; Swine; Zoonoses; Article; contact examination; disease surveillance; epidemic; fear; health care facility; health care system; home quarantine; horizontal disease transmission; human; infection control; interdisciplinary research; Kerala; medical research; misinformation; multidisciplinary team; Nipah virus; Nipah virus infection; nonhuman; One Health; public health; public-private partnership; rapid response team; virus transmission; zoonotic transmission; animal; bat; Henipavirus infection; Nipah virus; pig; zoonosis |
| Assessing upstream determinants of antibiotic use in small-scale food animal production through a simulated client method | Small-scale food animal production has been celebrated as a means of economic mobility and improved food security but the use of veterinary antibiotics among these producers may be contributing to the spread of antibiotic resistance in animals and humans. In order to improve antibiotic stewardship in this sector, it is critical to identify the drivers of producers’ antibiotic use. This study assessed the determinants of antibiotic use in small-scale food animal production through simulated client visits to veterinary supply stores and surveys with households that owned food animals (n = 117) in Ecuador. Eighty percent of households with food animals owned chickens and 78% of those with chickens owned fewer than 10 birds. Among the households with small-scale food animals, 21% reported giving antibiotics to their food animals within the last six months. Simulated client visits indicated that veterinary sales agents frequently recommended inappropriate antibiotic use, as 66% of sales agents recommended growth promoting antibiotics, and 48% of sales agents recommended an antibiotic that was an inappropriate class for disease treatment. In contrast, few sales agents (3%) were willing to sell colistin, an antibiotic banned for veterinary use in Ecuador as of January 2020, which supports the effectiveness of government regulation in antibiotic stewardship. The cumulative evidence provided by this study indicates that veterinary sales agents play an active role in promoting indiscriminate and inappropriate use of antibiotics in small-scale food animal production. © 2020 by the authors. Li-censee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. | antibiotic agent; colistin; adult; antibiotic resistance; antimicrobial stewardship; Article; chicken; clinical audit; data analysis; drug cost; drug use; food industry; food security; government; government regulation; growth; health care organization; household; human; medical research; middle aged; nonhuman; poultry; questionnaire; semi structured interview; simulation; slaughtering; social determinants of health; veterinary medicine | ABR; AMR; Antibiotic resistance; Antimicrobial resistance; Livestock; One Health; Poultry; Sales agent; Simulated client; Small-scale food animal |
| Planetary boundaries and Veterinary Services; [Les frontières planétaires et les Services vétérinaires]; [Límites planetarios y Servicios Veterinarios] | National Veterinary Services (NVS) play a crucial role in animal health, production and welfare. They are also intimately involved with safeguarding global health security and the health of the planet. Climate change is just one of the nine planetary boundaries (PBs), i.e. Earth system processes, that can be used to monitor the vital signs of our living planet. In this paper, the authors identify the positive and negative impacts of human-induced management of aquatic and terrestrial animals in relation to these PBs. In the context of NVS, the authors provide an overview of the real and potential impacts of NVS policies on Earth systems and offer suggestions as to how new sustainability paradigms may assist with reviewing and revising NVS mandates and facilitating stakeholder engagement. Opportunities are proposed for the World Organisation for Animal Health to contribute to the global debate on the role of aquatic and terrestrial animal agriculture and wildlife in sustainable development. In addition, the paper suggests that a wider debate is required in relation to recent significant increases in domestic animal populations and PBs. Intersectoral and interdisciplinary collaboration are required to achieve the transformation of the framework in which NVS operate. While such transformations cannot be driven by the veterinary profession alone, veterinarians have proven very effective operators in the One Health arena. By building on these intersectoral linkages, it will be possible for our profession and NVS to actively contribute to the crucial discussions and transformations required to pull Earth system metrics back within safe boundaries. © 2021 Office International des Epizootes. All rights reserved. | Agriculture; Animals; Climate Change; Global Health; Humans; Planets; Veterinarians; agriculture; animal; astronomy; climate change; global health; human; veterinarian | Agro-ecology; Animal-source food; Circular food systems; Climate change; Earth system processes; National Veterinary Services; One Health; Planetary boundaries; Sustainable diets; Sustainable production |
| One health approach to genetic relatedness in SCCmec between methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus isolates from companion dogs with pyoderma and their owners | Staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec) confers methicillin resistance and shows ability for horizontal transfer. However, little is known about the potential transfer of SCCmec between different species of staphylococci in a clinical setting. In this study, we investigated the genetic relationship of SCCmec between staphylococci isolated from dogs affected with pyoderma and their owners. Clinical isolates were collected from pyoderma lesions of dogs and from the nasal cavity and finger of owners. Clonal lineages were characterized using multi-locus sequence typing. Genetic relatedness of SCCmec in the isolates from dogs and owners was first evaluated with dru and SCCmec typing, and whole-genome sequencing (WGS) was used to confirm the similarity of DNA sequences and the structural composition of SCCmec. A total of 100 Staphylococcus strains were isolated from 31 dog-owner pairs. One pair with isolates carrying the same SCCmec type V and dru type 11a was detected: 18D20-1 (S. pseudintermedius, dog), 18D20-2 (S. schleiferi, dog), and 18H20-F2 (S. epidermidis, dog owner). WGS revealed that these three isolates showed remarkable genetic similarity in SCCmec with respect to DNA sequences, dru type, structure composition of ccrC and the mec complex, and DR-1 in orfX, which is considered to be the insertion site of SCCmec. Entire identical nucleotide sequences of the whole SCCmec region in different Staphylococcus strains were absent between dogs and owners. However, the remarkable genetic similarity of SCCmec from staphylococci isolated from a dog and owner pair emphasizes that antimicrobial resistance surveillance adopted One Health concept should be continuously performed. © 2020 Elsevier B.V. | Animals; Anti-Bacterial Agents; Bacterial Proteins; Dog Diseases; Dogs; Gene Transfer, Horizontal; Genome, Bacterial; Humans; Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus; Microbial Sensitivity Tests; One Health; Ownership; Pets; Pyoderma; Skin; Staphylococcal Infections; Whole Genome Sequencing; antiinfective agent; bacterial protein; adult; animal experiment; animal model; Article; clinical article; controlled study; DNA sequence; genetic similarity; human; human-animal interaction; methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus; molecular phylogeny; nonhuman; nucleotide sequence; One Health; pyoderma; Staphylococcus; Staphylococcus epidermidis; Staphylococcus pseudintermedius; Staphylococcus schleiferi; whole genome sequencing; animal; bacterial genome; dog; dog disease; drug effect; genetics; horizontal gene transfer; isolation and purification; methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus; microbial sensitivity test; microbiology; organization and management; pet animal; pyoderma; skin; Staphylococcus infection; veterinary medicine | Canine pyoderma; Methicillin resistance; MRSP; One health; SCCmec |
| ONE HEALTH: ANTIBIOTIC-RESISTANT BACTERIA CONTAMINATION IN FRESH VEGETABLES SOLD AT A RETAIL MARKETS IN KYIV, UKRAINE | OBJECTIVE: The aim: To obtain the first estimates data on the occurrence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in a wide range of fresh vegetables available in the Kyiv city markets. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Materials and methods: We performed a multicenter study. Fresh vegetables samples were collected of the six different commodity groups from eleven of retail stores locatedin Kyiv, Ukraine. Samples were tested for up to eight bacteria of concern. The susceptibility to antibiotics was determined by disk diffusion method according to the European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing. RESULTS: Results: The antibiotic-resistant bacteria contamination in the fresh vegetables was 24.3%. The contamination among organic produce was significantly higher than in conventionally products. Contamination was found to be higher in leafy vegetables. The predominant contaminated bacteria were: Escherichia coli, Enterobacter spp. And Enterococcus faecalis, followed by Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, E. faecium, Staphylococcus aureus and Acinetobacter spp. The overall proportion of extended spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) production among Enterobacteriaceae was 36.8% and of methicillin-resistance in S. aureus (MRSA) 10.7%. The prevalence of ESBL production among E. coli isolates was significantly higher than in K. pneumoniae. Vancomycin resistance was observed in 3.1% of isolated enterococci (VRE). Carbapenem resistance was identified in 35.3% of P.aeruginosa isolates and 66.8% of Acinetibacter spp. isolates. Resistance to third-generation cephalosporins was observed in 9.7% K. pneumoniae and E.coli in 14.2% isolates. CONCLUSION: Conclusions: Research has shown that the majority of fresh vegetables available in Kiev markets is contaminated with antibiotic-resistant bacteria and is a potential vehicle for the transmission of these pathogens to consumers. | Anti-Bacterial Agents; Bacteria; Drug Resistance, Bacterial; Escherichia coli; Humans; One Health; Staphylococcus aureus; Ukraine; Vegetables; antiinfective agent; antibiotic resistance; bacterium; clinical trial; Escherichia coli; human; multicenter study; One Health; Staphylococcus aureus; Ukraine; vegetable | Antimicrobial Resistance; Bacterial contamination; Fresh Vegetables; Retail; Ukraine |
| One Health and veterans’ post-deployment health | Since 2001, more than 3.3 million US service members have been deployed to operations Iraqi Freedom, Enduring Freedom, New Dawn, Inherent Resolve and Freedom’s Sentinel. Visible and invisible war wounds from direct combat experiences, coupled with environmental exposures to harmful substances, can complicate veterans’ health throughout their lifespan. While promoting a holistic view of health, health professionals should be attentive for potential risks associated with environmental or animal exposures (One Health concept). During deployment, infectious and non-infectious environmental exposures and harmful substances in the air, on the land and in the water may result in immediate- or long-term health effects. Veterans can also face psychosocial health risks when home that may impact their concentration, emotional responses and social interactions. To strengthen health professions education, the authors recommend that curricula incorporate a comprehensive overview of veterans’ physical and psychosocial health risks as a result of their deployment. They describe four specific curriculum topics, competencies and didactic methods that can reinforce veteran-specific content for clinical education and training. By applying the One Health concept, health professionals can document harmful environmental exposures during deployment, report gaps in clinical practice, and provide support for veterans’ physical and psychosocial health needs when returning to civilian life. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd and The Association for the Study of Medical Education | Afghan Campaign 2001-; Humans; Iraq War, 2003-2011; One Health; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic; Veterans; human; One Health; posttraumatic stress disorder; veteran; war |
| Bovine Tuberculosis: A Re-emerging Zoonotic Infection | Bovine tuberculosis is caused by Mycobacterium bovis (M. bovis), which infects both humans and cattle. In 2018, a dairy farm in Wisconsin was affected by M. bovis, including a farmworker with exposure to the affected herd. Largely eradicated by effective public health strategies in the United States, most cases are now associated with risk factors including occupational hazards, food consumption, and iatrogenic infections. M. bovis continues to cause disease worldwide affecting certain at-risk populations in the United States. Infections more often result in extrapulmonary sequelae and resistance to pyrazinamide is universal. Thus, successful treatment depends on early and correct identification of the mycobacterium species. A One Health approach to control this re-emerging disease is crucial. © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. | Animals; Cattle; Farmers; Humans; Mycobacterium bovis; Public Health; Tuberculosis, Bovine; Zoonoses; agricultural worker; animal; bovine; bovine tuberculosis; human; Mycobacterium bovis; public health; zoonosis | bovine tuberculosis; dairy farmworker; Mycobacterium bovis; One Health; zoonotic disease |
| The therapeutic effect of irbesartan combined with nursing care in the treatment of patients with essential hypertension | Objective: To observe and analyze the effect of irbesartan combined with nursing in treating patients with essential hypertension. Methods: 160 patients with essential hypertension treated in our hospital were enrolled as research subjects and divided into a study group and a control group, each containing 80 patients. The patients in the study group were treated with irbesartan combined with high-quality nursing mode, while the control group was treated with oral administration of nifedipine controlled-release tablet combined with routine nursing mode. The therapeutic effects of the two groups were compared. Results: The blood pressure levels of the two groups were compared after the treatment and the results showed that the improvement effect of the study group was significantly better than that of the control group, p<0.05. The quality of life of the two groups of patients was compared before and after treatment; the results showed that the study group had a significant advantage over the control group, p<0.05. Compared with the control group, the overall nursing satisfaction of the study group was higher, p<0.05. Conclusion: Irbesartan combined with high-quality nursing mode can help patients with essential hypertension to better control blood pressure level and get a better therapeutic effect. © 2021 A. CARBONE Editore. All rights reserved. | irbesartan; nifedipine; adult; aerobic exercise; aged; antihypertensive therapy; Article; blood pressure monitoring; comparative study; controlled release formulation; diastolic blood pressure; drug bioavailability; drug effect; emotion; essential hypertension; female; health care quality; health education; healthy diet; human; hypertensive patient; major clinical study; male; nursing care; nursing management; One Health; optimism; psychological counseling; quality of life; salt intake; satisfaction; sustained release preparation; systolic blood pressure; tablet | High-quality nursing; Irbesartan; Patients with essential hypertension; Treatment effect |
| Questionnaire Survey-Based Quantitative Assessment of the Impact of Transitional Care on Self-Management of Patients with Acute Exacerbation of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease | Background and Objective. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) features high morbidity. Different nursing interventions can relieve patient’s burden. This investigation quantitatively assessed the impact of transitional care (TC) on self-management of patients with acute exacerbation of COPD based on a questionnaire survey. Methods. Clinical information of 78 COPD patients treated with TC (intervention group) or routine care (control group) in Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital during March 2019 and August 2020 was gathered. Patients were followed up for 3 months after discharge. The intervention group (n=39) was subjected to a TC plan for 3 months to help patients and their family caregivers for self-management of COPD. TC was provided by specially trained nurses, and patients were supported by standardized tools. Nursing measures in the control group (n=79) included transitional support for 30 d after hospital discharge. In this way, patients were guaranteed to follow discharge plans and transit to outpatient nursing. Patient’s anxiety and depression symptoms, sleep quality, survival quality, mobility, and life quality at admission and after 3 months of discharge were assessed by Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, Quality of Life Scale Abbreviated Version, Activity of Daily Life Scale, St. George’s Respiratory Questionnaire, and COPD Assessment Test. Results. Except for anxiety and depression, patient’s sleep quality, survival quality, mobility, and life quality in two groups were significantly improved. Moreover, average change of total CAT score during 3 months of intervention was -5.44, while that in the control group was -1.74 (p=0.011). Improvement of survival quality of patients in the intervention group (p=0.001) was markedly greater than that in the control group (p=0.016). Conclusion. Altogether, TC based on quantification by questionnaire survey is beneficial to COPD patient’s life quality and self-management. © 2021 Wenjie Xu et al. | Aged; China; Chronic Disease; Computational Biology; Disease Progression; Evaluation Studies as Topic; Female; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive; Quality of Life; Retrospective Studies; Self-Management; Surveys and Questionnaires; Transitional Care; Hospitals; Nursing; Patient monitoring; Pulmonary diseases; Quality control; Sleep research; Surveys; Activity of daily lives; Acute exacerbations; Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; Clinical information; Hospital discharge; Nursing interventions; Quantitative assessments; Questionnaire surveys; adult; aged; Article; caregiver; chronic obstructive lung disease; controlled study; COPD assessment test; female; Fisher exact test; follow up; health care survey; health education; Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale; human; intensive care; major clinical study; male; obstructive lung disease; One Health; Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index; quality of life; questionnaire; rank sum test; self care; sleep quality; Student t test; transitional care; biology; China; chronic disease; chronic obstructive lung disease; disease exacerbation; evaluation study; middle aged; nursing; retrospective study; Patient treatment |
| Occurrence of Multi-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus in Artisan Goat Coalho Cheese in Northeastern Brazil | Background: The artisanal goat coalho cheese is one of the products obtained that stand out in the dairy goat farming of the Northeast of Brazil. Despite its importance, goat cheese is often made under inadequate hygienic-sanitary conditions and usually uses raw goat’s milk, increasing the risk of product contamination. Among the pathogens carried by goat coalho cheese, Staphylococcus aureus stands out, being responsible for cases of food poisoning and persistent infections that are difficult to treat. This study aimed to evaluate the contamination, genotypic and phenotypic resistance of Staphylococcus aureus isolated from artisanal coalho cheese made with goat milk produced in the Northeast region of Brazil. Materials, Methods & Results: This study analyzed only artisanal coalho cheeses made with raw goat’s milk and purchased directly from farms. Twelve samples of artisanal coalho cheeses made with raw goat’s milk were collected (1 sample per property) in 8 municipalities in the state of Pernambuco, Northeast region of Brazil. For microbiological analysis of enumeration of Colony Forming Units (CFU/g) of Staphylococcus spp. the methodology recommended by the International Organization for Standardization (2019) and recognized by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply was used. After enumeration, 5 colonies were selected per enumerated plate, a total of 180 Staphylococcus spp. was obtained. These were subjected to thermal extraction of genetic material to search for the nuc gene by Polymerase Chain Reaction, the isolates carrying the nuc gene were subjected to genotypic and phenotypic evaluation of antimicrobial resistance. After the phenotypic analysis, the Multiple Antimicrobial Resistance Index was evaluated. In all samples, Staphylococcus spp. and were considered unfit for consumption, with the lowest count being 9.4×103 CFU/g and the highest 6.4×106 CFU/g. Of the 180 isolates, 28.34% (51/180) were positive for the detection of the nuc gene. All resistance genes except mecA, mecC, and norB were detected. Of the 51 S. aureus isolates, 31.37% (16/51) were considered multi-resistant and presented a Multiple Antimicrobial Resistance Index above 0.2. Discussion: After microbiological analysis it was found that all samples of coalho cheese were out of standards and unfit for human consumption in accordance with Ordinance no 146/1996 of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply of Brazil. Furthermore, the contamination of goat coalho cheeses is a risk to public health. During sample collection were found inadequate hygiene conditions in the environment used for cheese production. The presence of Staphylococcus aureus can be attributed to hygienic-sanitary failures in cheese production. From a health point of view, it is even more alarming when it comes to S. aureus carrying resistance genes. Although the 51 S. aureus isolates did not carry the mecA, mecC, norB genes and did not show phenotypic resistance to cefoxitin and oxacillin, all other genes were detected, indicating the circulation of S. aureus carrying the tet(L) genes, tet(M), tet-38, msrA, norA, and norC, which so far had not been reported in the production chain of goat coalho cheese in Brazil. Furthermore, the evaluation of the Multiple Antimicrobial Resistance Index identified the occurrence of multiple resistance to antimicrobials in 31.37% (16/51) of S. aureus at high risk to human health. The results obtained are quite worrying and serve as a warning to the scientific community and the Food Safety and Hygiene Inspection Services. © 2021 Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul. All rights reserved. | cefoxitin; erythromycin; norfloxacin; oxacillin; penicillin G; sodium chloride; tetracycline; antibiotic resistance; Article; artisan goat coalho cheese; bacterial gene; bacterial growth; bacterium isolation; blaZ; cheese; cheesemaking; colony forming unit; DNA extraction; gene; gene sequence; genotype; goat milk; laboratory test; livestock; mecA; medical parameters; micellar electrokinetic chromatography; microbiology; msrA; Multi resistant staphylococcus aureus; multiple antimicrobial resistance index; nonhuman; norA; norB; norC; nuc; phenotype; polymerase chain reaction; Staphylococcus aureus; tet 38; tetL; tetM; thermal analysis | Contamination; Goat cheese; One health; Resistance |
| Chlamydia psittaci st24: Clonal strains of one health importance dominate in australian horse, bird and human infections | Chlamydia psittaci is traditionally regarded as a globally distributed avian pathogen that can cause zoonotic spill-over. Molecular research has identified an extended global host range and significant genetic diversity. However, Australia has reported a reduced host range (avian, horse, and human) with a dominance of clonal strains, denoted ST24. To better understand the widespread of this strain type in Australia, multilocus sequence typing (MLST) and ompA genotyping were applied on samples from a range of hosts (avian, equine, marsupial, and bovine) from Australia. MLST confirms that clonal ST24 strains dominate infections of Australian psittacine and equine hosts (82/88; 93.18%). However, this study also found novel hosts (Australian white ibis, King parrots, racing pigeon, bovine, and a wallaby) and demonstrated that strain diversity does exist in Australia. The discovery of a C. psittaci novel strain (ST306) in a novel host, the Western brush wallaby, is the first detection in a marsupial. Analysis of the results of this study applied a multidisciplinary approach regarding Chlamydia infections, equine infectious disease, ecology, and One Health. Recommendations include an update for the descriptive framework of C. psittaci disease and cell biology work to inform pathogenicity and complement molecular epidemiology. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. | animal experiment; animal reservoir; Article; Australia; bovine; Chlamydia psittaci; chlamydiasis; Columbidae; conjunctivitis; DNA extraction; dyspnea; genetic variability; genotype; horse; human; marsupial; multilocus sequence typing; nonhuman; nucleotide sequence; One Health; open reading frame; ornithosis; parrot; phylogenetic tree; phylogeny; pneumonia; real time polymerase chain reaction; single nucleotide polymorphism; zoonotic transmission | Australia; Chlamydia psittaci; Genetic diversity; MLST; Novel hosts; Novel strains; OmpA genotyping |
| Antimicrobial resistance creates threat to chimpanzee health and conservation in the wild | Infectious disease is recognized as the greatest threat to the endangered chimpanzees made famous by the groundbreaking work of Dr. Jane Goodall at Gombe National Park (GNP), Tanzania. The permeable boundary of this small protected area allows for regular wildlife–human and wildlife–domestic animal overlap, which may facilitate cross-species transmission of pathogens and antimicrobial resistance. Few studies have examined the prevalence of antimicrobial resistance in wild ape populations. We used molecular techniques to investigate the presence of genes conferring resistance to sulfonamides (often used to treat diarrheal illness in human settings in this region) and tetracycline (used in the past—though much less so now) in fecal specimens from humans, domestic animals, chimpanzees, and baboons in and around GNP. We also tested stream water used by these groups. Sulfonamide resistance was common in humans (74%), non-human primates (43%), and domestic animals (17%). Tetracycline resistance was less common in all groups: humans (14%), non-human primates (3%), and domestic animals (6%). Sul resistance genes were detected from 4/22 (18%) of streams sampled. Differences in sul gene frequencies did not vary by location in humans nor in chimpanzees. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. | dihydropteroate synthase; sulfanilamide; sulfonamide resistant dihydropteroate synthase; tetracycline; unclassified drug; animal health; antibiotic resistance; Article; baboon; bacterial gene; bacterium identification; Canis lupus; chimpanzee; controlled study; diarrhea; DNA extraction; domestic animal; domestic goat; domestic sheep; ecosystem monitoring; Escherichia coli; feces analysis; gene frequency; gene identification; gene location; genetic variability; geographic distribution; household; human; imaging genetics; microbial community; multiplex polymerase chain reaction; national park; nonhuman; observational study; prevalence; randomized controlled trial; Salmonella; seasonal variation; species distribution; stream (river); sul1 gene; sul2 gene; Tanzania; tetA gene; tetB gene; tetracycline resistance; ultraviolet irradiation; water sampling; wildlife; wildlife conservation | AMR; Gombe; One health; Primate; Sulfonamides; Tanzania; Tetracycline; Zoonoses |
| Detection and analysis of tick-borne infections in communal dogs of northwest Zimbabwe | Domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) may serve as a reservoir or a sentinel for infectious disease pathogens that can affect human and wildlife health. To understand the role of tick-borne diseases in rural and lesser developed regions, we investigated the prevalence of several tick-borne pathogens in communal dogs of Zimbabwe. Blood samples from 225 dogs in northwest Zimbabwe were assessed by serology for Ehrlichia canis, Anaplasma phagocytophilum and Borrelia burgdorferi, and 241 samples were assessed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for Ehrlichia. There was a high seroprevalence (73%) of E. canis-specific antibodies in domestic dogs in northwest Zimbabwe, but follow up analyses via PCR and genetic sequencing indicated only 7.5% of the canines were actively infected with the organism. Whilst indicating that an organism serologically related to E. canis is likely present in the region, this data also shows that the organism is currently present in a relative minority of the domestic dogs in the region. Its presence as evidenced by both serologic and PCR analysis is significant because of the ‘one health’ paradigm, where humans and wildlife may be affected by the exposure to this pathogen in domestic dogs. © 2021. The Authors | Animals; Dog Diseases; Dogs; Female; Male; Polymerase Chain Reaction; Serologic Tests; Tick-Borne Diseases; Zimbabwe; adult; Anaplasma phagocytophilum; animal experiment; animal model; Article; blood sampling; Borrelia burgdorferi; controlled study; dog; Ehrlichia; Ehrlichia canis; female; follow up; male; nonhuman; polymerase chain reaction; prevalence; sequence analysis; seroprevalence; sex difference; tick borne disease; young adult; Zimbabwe; animal; blood; dog; dog disease; serology; tick borne disease; veterinary medicine | Canine; Ehrlichia; One health; Southern Africa; Tick |
| When Pet Snacks Look like Children’s Toys! The Potential Role of Pet Snacks in Transmission of Bacterial Zoonotic Pathogens in the Household | Recent foodborne pathogen outbreaks associated with dry pet food and treats have focused the attention on these products as vehicles of pathogens for both pets and their owners. This study investigates the purchasing habits of dog owners and determines if and in what form pet snacks can be potentially dangerous for humans, especially for children. For these purposes, questionnaires collected from 406 dog owners were evaluated and microbiological analyses were performed on 120 dry pet snacks. The shape of the pet snack affects the purchase (median score, Mdn = 6.4) and the star bone was the preferred one (Mdn = 7.1). Most of the participants (76.0%; p < 0.001) stated that snacks are attractive to their children and that the possibility for children to get in contact with pet snacks is rare, but not implausible (Mdn = 3.1). Indeed, more than 6% of respondents admitted that there had been incidents of involuntary ingestion of pet snacks, with fever and gastrointestinal manifestations. Microbiological analyses showed that 119 dry pet snacks analyzed of a total of 120 (99.2%) were in good sanitary condition except for one sample where the presence of Listeria ivanovii was confirmed. The upward trend in the presence of pets in households and the strong and continuous growth in value and volume of the pet food market led researchers to analyze possible public health issues. Children and infants in particular are the most exposed subjects as they are more likely to come into contact with pet snacks, attracted by a shape similar to that of a toy. For this reason, although our findings did not highlight important microbiological contamination of pet snacks, it would be useful to standardize food safety criteria with those for human food from a One Health perspective. © 2021, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. | Animal Feed; Animals; Child; Consumer Behavior; Dogs; Female; Food Microbiology; Food Preferences; Food Safety; Foodborne Diseases; Humans; Listeria; Listeriosis; Male; Pets; Snacks; Surveys and Questionnaires; Zoonoses; adult; aged; animal food; Article; bacterial transmission; Escherichia coli; female; fever; food safety; foodborne pathogen; gastrointestinal symptom; household; human; hygiene; limit of detection; Listeria ivanovii; Listeria monocytogenes; male; microbial contamination; microbiological examination; nonhuman; One Health; priority journal; public health; questionnaire; Salmonella; animal; animal food; child; consumer attitude; dog; fast food; food control; food poisoning; food preference; Listeria; listeriosis; microbiology; pet animal; psychology; veterinary medicine; zoonosis | food safety; one health; pet food; pet snack |
| Characterization of a municipality as free of canine visceral leishmaniasis in the context of One Health; [Caracterização de um município como livre de leishmaniose visceral canina em um contexto de Saúde Única] | Dogs are the main urban reservoir of Leishmania infantum, the causative agent of visceral leishmaniasis (VL), which is transmitted by sand flies. In the state of Paraná, the first detection of a positive dog for VL was in 2014, this year Paraná lost free status for this disease (VL). The objectives of this study were to determine the prevalence of canine visceral leishmaniasis in Palotina, the occurrence of vectors that may transmit Leishmania infantum, and the number of notifications of human visceral leishmaniasis cases from period 2010 to 2020. To determine the occurrence of canine visceral leishmaniasis, blood samples from 204 dogs were analyzed using the rapid test DPP® to detect anti-L. infantum antibodies. To investigate the occurrence of potential vectors, monthly collections were made at 18 points within the urban area of the municipality. The number of human visceral leishmaniasis cases was investigated from Epidemiological Surveillance records. None of the serologically tested dogs showed positive titration. Only two specimens of Lutzomyia neivai, one of Lutzomyia sp. and four of Brumptomyia brumpti specimens were collected. No human visceral leishmaniasis cases were reported. These results suggest that there is no evidence of circulation of L. infantum in Palotina. © 2021, Brazilain Coll Veterinary Parasitology. All rights reserved. | Animals; Brazil; Cities; Dog Diseases; Dogs; Insect Vectors; Leishmania infantum; Leishmaniasis, Visceral; One Health; animal welfare; Article; Brumptomyia brumpti; cephalic vein; cross-sectional study; disease transmission; dog; entomology; epidemiological surveillance; female; host parasite interaction; immunoaffinity chromatography; jugular vein; Leishmania infantum; Lutzomyia; Lutzomyia longipalpis; Lutzomyia neivai; male; nonhuman; One Health; Psychodidae; serology; vein puncture; visceral leishmaniasis; animal; Brazil; city; dog disease; insect vector; Leishmania infantum; veterinary medicine; visceral leishmaniasis | Leishmania infantum; sand fly; serology; vectors |
| Proposal for a veterinary presidium to support public authority in responding to catastrophic events in the Italian context | The ultimate goal of any disaster response, or a natural or a man-made event, is to get the best outcome for the highest number of people. From a veterinary point of view, the best outcome includes either the protection of animals (conventional and unconventional pets) or the safeguarding the wholesomeness of food supplies in the “One Health” perspective. The evolution of the Italian veterinary role in disaster management has changed across the last 35 years and has grown with the awareness that animals and human beings share the same vulnerability to disasters. The University of Teramo, following its experiences in different disaster scenarios, proposes a veterinary presidium to support Public Authority in responding to catastrophic events in the Italian context, in order to rescue small, large and unconventional animals. The proposed veterinary presidium is made up of 3 skilled people certified to react to different population needs. Indeed we propose different teams to rescue small, large or non-conventional animal, trained to work together in a stress situation and under coordination of the Civil Protection Function 2. This presidium with its 3 different skilled teams under the supervision of the advanced veterinary medical center (AVMC) and by reporting to it will provide the best competences based on the needs of the population and the authorities, in view of the “One Health” perspective. © 2021, Istituto Zooprofilattico dell’Abruzzo e del Molise. All rights reserved. | Animals; Disaster Planning; Disasters; Italy; Legislation, Veterinary; Veterinarians; adult; article; awareness; catering service; disaster management; disaster response; earthquake; human; male; One Health; physiological stress; veterinary medicine; animal; disaster; disaster planning; Italy; law; legislation and jurisprudence; organization and management; veterinarian | Earthquake; Non-epidemic emergency; Snowfall; Veterinary first respond |
| Safety and interim survival data after intracranial administration of M032, a genetically engineered oncolytic HSV-1 expressing IL-12, in pet dogs with sporadic gliomas | OBJECTIVE The diagnosis of glioma remains disheartening in the clinical realm. While a multitude of studies and trials have shown promise, improvements in overall survival have been disappointing. Modeling these tumors in the laboratory setting has become increasingly challenging, given their complex in situ behavior and interactions for therapeutic evasion. Dogs, particularly brachycephalic breeds, are known to spontaneously develop gliomas that resemble human gliomas both clinically and pathophysiologically, making canines with sporadic tumors promising candidates for study. Typically, survival among these dogs is approximately 2 months with palliation alone. METHODS The authors have completed the first stage of a unique phase I dose-escalating canine clinical trial in which the safety and tolerability of M032, a nonneurovirulent oncolytic herpes simplex virus–1 vector genetically engineered to express interleukin-12, are being studied in pet dogs with gliomas undergoing maximum safe tumor resection and inoculation of the cavity with the viral infusate. RESULTS Twenty-five canine patients were enrolled between January 2018 and August 2020. One patient was electively withdrawn from the trial by its owner, and 3 did not receive the virus. For the 21 dogs that remained, 13 had high-grade gliomas, 5 had low-grade gliomas, and 3 were undetermined. According to histopathological analysis, 62% of the tumors were oligodendrogliomas. At the time of this report, the median overall survival from the date of treatment was 151 days (± 78 days). No significant adverse events attributable to M032 or dose-limiting toxicities have been observed to date. CONCLUSIONS In this largest study of oncolytic viral therapy for canine brain tumors to date, treatment with M032 did not cause harm and the combination of surgery and oncolytic viral therapy may have contributed to prolonged survival in pet dogs with spontaneous gliomas. Forthcoming in-depth radiographic, immunohistochemical, and genetic analyses will afford a more advanced understanding of how this treatment impacts these tumors and the immune system. Our goal is to utilize these findings bitranslationally to inform human studies and refine therapies that will improve outcomes in both humans and pet dogs with gliomas. © AANS 2021. except where prohibited by US copyright law. | Animals; Brain Neoplasms; Dogs; Glioma; Herpesvirus 1, Human; Humans; Interleukin-12; Oncolytic Virotherapy; Oncolytic Viruses; interleukin 12; oncolytic virus; animal; brain tumor; dog; genetics; glioma; human; Human alphaherpesvirus 1; oncolytic virotherapy | bitranslational; canine; glioma; immunotherapy; oncolytic virus; One Health Consortium |
| Methicillin-resistant staphylococcus epidermidis in handler of cheese made with goat’s milk in brazil; [Staphylococcus epidermidis resistente à meticilina em manipulador de queijo elaborado com leite de cabra no brasil] | In the Northeastern Brazil, artisanal cheese production is an important local economic activity for small producers. Methicillinresistant Staphylococcus is responsible for causing infection in animals and humans. This study described the first detection of methicillinresistant S. epidermidis isolated in the nasal cavity of a handler of coalho cheese made with goat’s milk in Northeastern Brazil. This brief communication highlighted the importance of adopting biosafety measures by cheese handlers, in order to reduce possible contamination and the spread of pathogens in the production chain of this type of artisanal cheese in Brazil. © 2021, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria. All rights reserved. | Antimicrobial resistance; Goat cheese; One health |
| Multidrug-resistant serratia rubidaea strains in the oral microbiota of healthy horses | Background: Many emergent pathogenic agents are cross-transmitted from animals to humans. Horses are considered as potential reservoirs of commensal, zoonotic, and multidrug-resistant bacteria. Equine bites could lead to infections caused by these agents, considering equine species as a public health concern. The more it is known about the equine oral microbiota the best secondary problems created by their commensal flora can be controlled. There are very few reports of Serratia rubidaea, a zoonotic and opportunistic bacterium, both in human and veterinary medicine. Aim: This study aimed to evaluate the Gram-negative microbiota of healthy equine oral cavities and their antimicrobial susceptibility. Methods: During equine routine oral procedures, eight healthy horses were selected for this study, after discarding any abnormal dental conditions. Samples were collected from the subgingival space and gingival margin from the tooth 406 and both the identification and antimicrobial susceptibility test of Gram-negative bacteria were performed. Results: This study reports the isolation of 32 Gram-negative agents, 27 of which were multidrug-resistant to the antimicrobial classes tested. High resistance rates were obtained to commonly used antimicrobial drugs, particularly macrolides and aminoglycosides as to carbapenems that are specific to human medicine. Two multi-drug resistance strains of S. rubidaea were found in the mouth of two healthy horses. Conclusion: Most Gram-negative isolates found in healthy horses were zoonotic and multi-drug resistant. This is a strong reason to consider the horse as an animal with a major place in the “One Health” concept. Equine clinicians should take precautions when working with horses’ mouths. Antimicrobial sensitivity tests should be taken into consideration when finding the appropriate antimicrobial therapy protocol. To the authors’ best knowledge, this is the first report about isolation of S. rubidaea from the mouth of the equine species. © 2021, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Tripoli. All rights reserved. | Animals; Anti-Bacterial Agents; Anti-Infective Agents; Drug Resistance, Multiple, Bacterial; Horses; Microbiota; Serratia; aminoglycoside; amoxicillin plus clavulanic acid; aztreonam; beta lactam antibiotic; carbapenem derivative; cefalotin; ceftazidime; chloramphenicol; erythromycin; imipenem; macrolide; piperacillin; piperacillin plus tazobactam; quinolone derivative; sulfonamide; tetracycline; timentin; antiinfective agent; animal experiment; animal reservoir; animal tissue; antibiotic resistance; antibiotic sensitivity; Article; bacterial strain; bacterium identification; bacterium isolate; bacterium isolation; bite; clinical article; commensal; controlled study; diagnostic test accuracy study; Enterobacter cloacae; Escherichia coli; gingivitis; Gram negative bacterium; human; Klebsiella; Klebsiella pneumoniae; mouth flora; multicenter study; multidrug resistance; multidrug resistant bacterium; nonhuman; One Health; periodontitis; Serratia; Serratia rubidaea; tooth; veterinary medicine; animal; horse; microflora; Serratia | Antimicrobial Resistance; Horse; Oral microbiota; Serratia |
| Evaluation of the knowledge, attitudes and practices of students at the university of abomey-calavi on rabies in Benin Republic, West Africa | Introduction: rabies is a vaccine-preventable viral zoonotic disease. Once clinical symptoms appear, rabies is fatal in almost 100% of cases. The objective of this study was to evaluate the knowledge, attitudes and practices of students at the University of Abomey-Calavi in Benin on rabies in order to explore the factors that promote the occurrence of this zoonosis. Methods: for this purpose, a descriptive cross-sectional survey was conducted among 263 randomly-selected students. The collected data were analyzed by R software with logistic regression. Results: out of all the 263 respondents, 53.2% (n=140) of the students claimed to have heard of canine rabies, compared to 47.5% (n=125) for human rabies. Stray dogs were recognized by 49.0% (n=129) as a prevailing source of rabies infection in people; bites from these dogs were considered as a means of rabies contagion (41.4%; n=109) and vaccination of dogs was considered by 32.7% (n=86) as a means of rabies control in both people and dogs. In case of a dog bite, 60.5% (n=159) of respondents would visit a western medicine human clinic first. For the fate of the biting dog, 18.6% (n=49) and 27.4% (n=72) of respondents, respectively, prefer to euthanize the dog or take the dog to the veterinarian for observation. Regarding the perceived consequences of inaction after a dog bite, 58.2% (n=140) mentioned the risk of rabies. Students in human or animal health were 3 times more aware on rabies. Conclusion: this study identifies the gaps in students´ knowledge, attitudes and practices about effective rabies prevention and control. It will therefore be necessary to intensify awareness and education campaigns among students who could be a good relay of information to other members in their communities. © Philippe Sessou et al. | Adolescent; Adult; Animals; Benin; Bites and Stings; Cross-Sectional Studies; Dog Diseases; Dogs; Female; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Rabies; Rabies Vaccines; Students; Surveys and Questionnaires; Universities; Young Adult; Zoonoses; rabies vaccine; adolescent; adult; animal euthanasia; Article; attitude to health; attitude to illness; Benin; cross-sectional study; dog bite; female; health promotion; help seeking behavior; human; infection control; infection risk; male; rabies; stray dog; student attitude; university student; vaccination; veterinarian; virus transmission; zoonosis; animal; bites and stings; complication; dog; dog disease; middle aged; questionnaire; rabies; student; university; virology; young adult; zoonosis | Attitudes; Benin; Education; Knowledge; One health; One health education; Rabies; Zoonotic disease |
| Detection of highly pathogenic avian influenza in Sekong Province Lao PDR 2018—Potential for improved surveillance and management in endemic regions | Significant global efforts have been directed towards understanding the epidemiology of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) across poultry production systems and in wild-bird reservoirs, yet understanding of disease dynamics in the village poultry setting remains limited. This article provides a detailed account of the first laboratory-confirmed outbreak of HPAI in the south-eastern provinces of Lao PDR, which occurred in a village in Sekong Province in October 2018. Perspectives from an anthropologist conducting fieldwork at the time of the outbreak, clinical and epidemiological observations by an Australian veterinarian are combined with laboratory characterization and sequencing of the virus to provide insights about disease dynamics, biosecurity, outbreak response and impediments to disease surveillance. Market-purchased chickens were considered the likely source of the outbreak. Observations highlighted the significance of a-lack-of pathognomonic clinical signs and commonness of high-mortality poultry disease with consequent importance of laboratory diagnosis. Sample submission and testing was found to be efficient, despite the village being far from the national veterinary diagnostic laboratory. Extensively raised poultry play key roles in ritual, livelihoods and nutrition of rural Lao PDR people. Unfortunately, mass mortality of chickens due to diseases such as HPAI and Newcastle disease (ND) imposes a significant burden on smallholders in Lao PDR, as in most other SE Asian countries. We observed that high mortality of chickens is perceived by locals as a new ‘normal’ in raising poultry; this sense of it being ‘normal’ is a disincentive to reporting of mortality events. Establishing effective people-centred disease-surveillance approaches with local benefit, improving market-biosecurity and veterinary-service support to control vaccine-preventable poultry diseases could all reduce mass-mortality event frequency, improve veterinary–producer relationships and increase the likelihood that mortality events are reported. Priority in each of these aspects should be on working with smallholders and local traders, appreciating and respecting their perspectives and local knowledge. © 2020 Blackwell Verlag GmbH | Animals; Chickens; Disease Outbreaks; Influenza in Birds; Laos; Poultry Diseases; Newcastle disease vaccine; animal experiment; Article; ataxia; chicken; cholera; differential diagnosis; disease surveillance; disease transmission; egg production; ethnography; fever; fowl cholera; gene sequence; highly pathogenic avian influenza; infectious bursal disease; influenza A (H5N1); lethargy; mortality; nonhuman; One Health; petechia; poultry; public health; toxoplasmosis; vaccination; veterinary medicine; virus isolation; virus transmission; animal; avian influenza; bird disease; chicken; epidemic; Laos; parasitology; veterinary medicine; virology | anthropology; avian influenza; epidemiology; Newcastle disease; One Health; public health |
| Antibiotic use in broiler poultry farms in kathmandu valley of nepal: Which antibiotics and why? | Inappropriate antibiotic use in food-producing animals is associated with the emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance. In industrial broiler poultry farms in three districts of Kathmandu valley, Nepal, we assessed antibiotic use prevalence, and their classes, types, and quantities. A cross-sectional questionnaire study involving field visits to large poultry farms (flock size ≥ 3000) of the Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, and Lalitpur districts was conducted. Of 30 farms (total flock size 104,200; range 3000–6000), prevalence of antibiotic use was 90% (95% CI: 73–98%). Six (22%) farms used antibiotics as prophylaxis, while 21 (78%) used it for therapeutics. Seven antibiotics from six classes (including quinolones, macrolides, and polymyxins) were used. The most commonly used antibiotics were tylosin (47%), colistin (47%), and dual therapies with neomycin and doxycycline (33%). A total of 50,000 grams of antibiotics (total weight including active and inactive ingredients) were used (0.5 grams/chicken/45 days of flock life) with eight (26%) farms using more than two antibiotics. No farms had records on clinical indications for prophylaxis or treatment. No post-mortem records of sick birds were available. Prevalence of antibiotic use in broiler farms of Kathmandu valley is high and includes “highest priority critically important antibiotics” for human use, with direct implications on public health. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. | antibiotic agent; colistin; doxycycline; macrolide; neomycin; polymyxin; quinolone derivative; tylosin; antibiotic prophylaxis; Article; bird flock; broiler; chicken; cross-sectional study; drug use; Nepal; nonhuman; poultry; prevalence; species flock | Antibiotic use; Antibiotics stewardship; Antimicrobial resistance; Food producing animals; One Health; SORT IT |
| Pet Reptiles: A Potential Source of Transmission of Multidrug-Resistant Salmonella | Salmonella spp. is widely considered one of the most important zoonotic pathogens worldwide. The close contact between reptiles and their owners provides favourable conditions for the transmission of zoonotic pathogen infections, and ~6% of human salmonellosis cases are acquired after direct or indirect contact with reptiles. Moreover, antimicrobial resistance is one of the most important health threats of the twenty-first century and has been reported in Salmonella strains isolated from pet reptiles, which could entail therapeutic consequences for their owners and breeders. The aim of this study was to assess Salmonella carriage by pet reptiles in pet shops and households, and their role in the transmission of antimicrobial resistance, to inform the owners about the possible risks factors. During the period between January 2019 and December 2019, 54 reptiles from pet shops and 69 reptiles from households were sampled in the Valencian Region (Eastern Spain). Three different sample types were collected from each reptile: oral cavity, skin, and cloacal swabs. Salmonella identification was based on ISO 6579-1:2017 (Annex D), serotyped in accordance with Kauffman-White-Le-Minor technique, and antibiotic susceptibility was assessed according to Decision 2013/652. The results of this study showed that 48% of the pet reptiles examined from households and pet shops carry Salmonella spp. All the strains isolated presented resistance to at least one antibiotic, and 72% were multidrug-resistant strains, the most frequently observed resistance patterns being gentamicin-colistin and gentamicin-colistin-ampicillin. The present study demonstrates that pet reptiles could be a source of human multidrug-resistant Salmonella infection. In this context, the most optimal prevention of multidrug-resistant Salmonella infections necessarily involves strict control of the sanitary status of reptile pet shops and hygienic handling by the individual owners at home. © Copyright © 2021 Marin, Lorenzo-Rebenaque, Laso, Villora-Gonzalez and Vega. | aminoglycoside; ampicillin; azithromycin; cefotaxime; ceftazidime; chloramphenicol; ciprofloxacin; colistin; cotrimoxazole; gentamicin; glycylcycline derivative; macrolide; nalidixic acid; polymyxin; pyrimidine; quinolone derivative; sulfonamide; tigecycline; trimethoprim; animal experiment; animal model; animal tissue; antibiotic resistance; antibiotic sensitivity; Article; bacterial transmission; bacterium identification; clinical assessment; cloaca; controlled study; household; infection prevention; infection risk; mouth cavity; multidrug resistance; nonhuman; One Health; reptile; risk factor; Salmonella; salmonellosis; serotype; skin; zoonosis | multidrug-resistant Salmonella; One Health; pet reptiles; reptile-associated salmonellosis; Salmonella; zoonosis |
| Anthropocentric framings of One Health: an analysis of international antimicrobial resistance policy documents | One Health (OH) is an increasingly popular approach for addressing antimicrobial resistance (AMR) which is often presented as a shared health concern at the interface of human-animal-environment relations. OH is widely adopted as a framework for collaboration between organisations like the World Health Organisation and the World Organisation for Animal Health; furthermore it occupies a central position in international AMR policy documents. Scholars like Craddock and Hinchliffe have raised questions about whether a unified OH understanding of health allows us to comprehend the diversity of practices and knowledge involved in interdisciplinary and interorganisational collaborations. In this article, we aim to explore how the OH idea as a shared health concern is conceptualised in international responses to AMR. Therefore, we conducted a constructivist policy analysis of two types of international policy documents–11 documents dedicated to AMR and a OH approach to it, and 12 documents with a focus on more general health issues that AMR regulations are built upon. The analysis of this policy arena makes clear that both sets of documents put human health at the centre, while the animal and environmental sectors are primarily framed as a risk for human health. Although human health is, more or less explicitly, considered to be the main problem, the animal and environmental health sectors are assigned responsibility for addressing this problem. © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. | anthropocentrism; Antimicrobial resistance; One Health; policy analysis; post-humanism |
| Rates of fluoroquinolone resistance in domestically acquired campylobawecter jejuni are increasing in people living within a model study location in canada | Antimicrobial resistance was evaluated in Campylobacter jejuni isolated from 1291 diarrheic people over a 15-year period (2004–2018) in southwestern Alberta, a model location in Canada with a high rate of campylobacteriosis. The prevalence of resistance to chloramphenicol, clindamycin, erythromycin, and gentamicin was low during the examination period (≤4.8%). Resistance to tetracycline remained consistently high (41.6%–65.1%), and resistance was primarily conferred by plasmid-borne tetO (96.2%). Resistance rates to ciprofloxacin and nalidixic acid increased substantially over the examination period, with a maximal fluoroquinolone resistance (FQR) prevalence of 28.9% in 2016. The majority of C. jejuni isolates resistant to ciprofloxacin (93.9%) contained a C257T single nucleotide polymorphism within the gyrA chromosomal gene. Follow up with infected people indicated that the observed increase in FQR was primarily due to domestically acquired infections. Moreover, the majority of FQ-resistant C. jejuni subtypes (82.6%) were endemic in Canada, primarily linked to cattle and chicken reservoirs; 18.4% of FQ-resistant isolates were assigned to three subtypes, predominantly associated with cattle. Study findings indicate the need to prioritize FQR monitoring in C. jejuni infections in Canada and to elucidate the dynamics of the emergence and transmission of resistant C. jejuni strains within and from cattle and chicken reservoirs. © 2020, Canadian Science Publishing. All rights reserved. | Alberta; Canada; Alberta; Campylobacter jejuni; Gallus gallus; chloramphenicol; ciprofloxacin; clindamycin; DNA topoisomerase (ATP hydrolysing) A; erythromycin; gentamicin; nalidixic acid; quinoline derived antiinfective agent; tetracycline; antibiotic resistance; antimicrobial activity; bacterium; diarrheal disease; disease prevalence; disease resistance; disease transmission; plasmid; Article; bacterial gene; bacterium isolate; bacterium isolation; Campylobacter jejuni; Canada; controlled study; data analysis software; fluoroquinolone resistance; follow up; nonhuman; prevalence; priority journal; single nucleotide polymorphism | Antimicrobial resistance; Cattle; Human health risk; One Health approach; Zoonotic reservoirs |
| Global Burden of Animal Diseases: a novel approach to understanding and managing disease in livestock and aquaculture; [L’impact mondial des maladies animales: une nouvelle approche pour mieux comprendre et gérer les maladies affectant le bétail et l’aquaculture]; [El impacto global de las enfermedades animales, como nuevo planteamiento para aprehender y manejar las enfermedades en la ganadería y la acuicultura] | Investments in animal health and Veterinary Services can have a measurable impact on the health of people and the environment. These investments require a baseline metric that describes the burden of animal health and welfare in order to justify and prioritise resource allocation and from which to measure the impact of interventions. This paper is part of a process of scientific enquiry in which problems are identified and solutions sought in an inclusive way. It poses the broad question: what should a system to measure the animal disease burden on society look like and what value would it add? Moreover, it aims to do this in such a way as to be accessible by a wide audience, who are encouraged to engage in this debate. Given that farmed animals, including those raised by poor smallholders, are an economic entity, this system should be based on economic principles. These poor farmers are negatively impacted by disparities in animal health technology, which can be addressed through a mixture of supply-led and demand-driven interventions, reinforcing the relevance of targeted financial support from government and non-governmental organisations. The Global Burden of Animal Diseases (GBADs) Programme will glean existing data to measure animal health losses within carefully characterised production systems. Consistent and transparent attribution of animal health losses will enable meaningful comparisons of the animal disease burden to be made between diseases, production systems and countries, and will show how it is apportioned by people’s socio-economic status and gender. The GBADs Programme will produce a cloud-based knowledge engine and data portal, through which users will access burden metrics and associated visualisations, support for decision-making in the form of future animal health scenarios, and the outputs of wider economic modelling. The vision of GBADs – strengthening the food system for the benefit of society and the environment – is an example of One Health thinking in action. © 2021 Office International des Epizootes. All rights reserved. | Animal Diseases; Animals; Aquaculture; Livestock; One Health; animal; animal disease; aquaculture; livestock; One Health | Agriculture; Aquaculture; Baseline; Burden; Economics; Gender; Global Burden of Animal Diseases Programme; Investment; Livestock; One Health; Poverty; Women farmers |
| Canine Leishmaniasis in Morocco: A Descriptive Prospective Clinical Study | Canine leishmaniasis (CanL) is a zoonotic vector-borne disease that is endemic in the Mediterranean Basin including Morocco. Dogs play a major epidemiological role in this zoonosis as reservoir hosts. This study investigated the clinical manifestations of CanL in dogs naturally infected with Leishmania infantum. A total of 96 dogs presented to the Small Animal Clinic of the Hassan II Agronomy and Veterinary Institute (IAV Hassan II) of Rabat, Morocco, and were tested by RT-PCR and/or serology. Among them, 32 (33.3%) were positive to Leishmania infantum infection. The majority of the positive dogs (93.7%) came from urban areas. Most of them were male (62.5%) and purebreds (65.6%), were aged between 3 and 7 years (71.8%), and had outside activities (guarding, hunting, livestock guarding, and service activities) (71.8%) and all of them were living exclusively outdoor or had free access to the outdoor environment. Lymphadenomegaly (81.2%), dermatological disorders (65.6%) (mostly exfoliative dermatitis), weight loss (59.3%), exercise intolerance (56.2%), anorexia (28.1%), hyporexia (15.6%), and ocular lesions (28.1%) were the most frequent clinical signs and complaints recorded. Anemia and hyperproteinemia due to hyperglobulinemia were observed in 68.7% and 72.7% of the cases, respectively. These results suggest that CanL leads to various nonspecific clinical signs as described previously, making the diagnosis challenging. Since CanL is endemic in Morocco, it should be recommended to systematically test dogs displaying clinical signs compatible with this disease and to regularly screen asymptomatic at-risk dogs. It is also crucial to educate dog owners about the zoonotic aspect of the disease and to encourage intersectorial collaboration following the “One Health”concept, in order to contribute to a more effective control/prevention of human and canine leishmaniasis. © 2021 Houda Idrissi et al. | amitraz; fipronil; hemoglobin; permethrin; proteinase K; anemia; animal tissue; anorexia; Article; autopsy; blood cell count; body weight loss; Canis; cephalic vein; connective tissue; constipation; controlled study; cutaneous leishmaniasis; dermatitis; diarrhea; DNA extraction; dog; eye injury; feces analysis; female; fine needle aspiration biopsy; gastrointestinal disease; hematuria; hepatomegaly; histopathology; hyperlipoproteinemia; hypertrophy; jugular vein; Kupffer cell; Leishmania infantum infection; leishmaniasis; livestock; lymphadenopathy; male; necrosis; nonhuman; One Health; orthopedics; phagocytosis; platelet count; polymerase chain reaction; popliteal artery; prescapular lymph node; prospective study; proteinuria; questionnaire; real time polymerase chain reaction; serology; splenomegaly; submandibular gland; thrombocytopenia; tongue; urea nitrogen blood level; urinalysis; vaccination; veterinary medicine; vomiting; zoonosis |
| Spatial and Simultaneous Seroprevalence of Anti-Leptospira Antibodies in Owners and Their Domiciled Dogs in a Major City of Southern Brazil | Although leptospirosis has been considered a major concern in urban areas, no study to date has spatially and simultaneously compared both owner and dog serology in households of major cities. Accordingly, the aim of the present study was to assess the seroprevalence of Leptospira antibodies, evaluate associated risk factors and conduct spatial analyses in 565 randomly selected households, which included 597 dog owners and 729 dogs in Londrina, Southern Brazil. Seropositivity by MAT were detected in in 11/597 (1.84%) owners and in 155/729 (21.26%) dogs. The risk factors were evaluated with logistic regression analysis and spatial factors and case distribution were evaluated with kernel density analyses. The sera of 14/155 (9.03%) dogs reacted for more than one serovar with the same titer. Canicola was the most frequent serogroup, detected in 3/11 (27.27%) owners and 76/155 (49.03%) dogs. The highest titer among the owners was 1:3,200 and was detected in the same household with a titer of 1:800 in the dog. Simultaneous owner-dog seropositivity was found in 7/565 (1.23%) households, with three reacted against serogroup Canicola. Positive owners were detected in 4/565 (0.70%) households and positive dogs were detected in 141/565 (24.95%) households. The associated risks of infection for dogs were different from those associated with infection in owners. Risk analyses for Canicola also identified specific factors of infection. Regardless of owner and dog cases were not statistically clustered, the kernel map has shown dog positivity occurrence in the same hot locations and near positive owners. The dependent variable analysis and logit model suggested a greater likelihood of peri-domiciliary contact with Leptospira. In conclusion, exposure to Leptospira infection was significantly higher in dogs than in their owners and human cases spatially overlapped dog cases, implicating dogs as potential environmental sentinels for this disease. In addition, the associated risk may vary according to serogroup, and the observed simultaneous Canicola seropositivity of owner and dog has suggested intradomicile-transmitted infection. © Copyright © 2021 Benitez, Monica, Miura, Romanelli, Giordano, Freire, Mitsuka-Breganó, Martins, Biondo, Serrano, Lopes, Reis, Gomes, Costa, Wunder, Ko and Navarro. | bacterium antibody; imunovet; kennel cough vaccine; vaccine; vanguard plus; vencomax 12; antibody titer; Article; Brazil; controlled study; cross-sectional study; dependent variable; dog; environmental factor; ethics; evaluation study; female; household; human-animal bond; infection risk; Leptospira; leptospirosis; logistic regression analysis; male; nonhuman; One Health; risk factor; seroprevalence; serotype; spatial analysis | epidemiology; kernell analysis; One Health; serovar; zoonosis |
| Reduced bacterial counts from a sewage treatment plant but increased counts and antibiotic resistance in the recipient stream in accra, ghana—a cross-sectional study | Wastewater treatment plants receive sewage containing high concentrations of bacteria and antibiotics. We assessed bacterial counts and their antibiotic resistance patterns in water from (a) influents and effluents of the Legon sewage treatment plant (STP) in Accra, Ghana and (b) upstream, outfall, and downstream in the recipient Onyasia stream. We conducted a cross-sectional study of quality-controlled water testing (January–June 2018). In STP effluents, mean bacterial counts (colony-forming units/100 mL) had reduced E. coli (99.9% reduction; 102,266,667 to 710), A. hydrophila (98.8%; 376,333 to 9603), and P. aeruginosa (99.5%; 5,666,667 to 1550). Antibiotic resistance was significantly reduced for tetracycline, ciprofloxacin, cefuroxime, and ceftazidime and increased for gentamicin, amoxicillin/clavulanate, and imipenem. The highest levels were for amoxicillin/clavulanate (50–97%) and aztreonam (33%). Bacterial counts increased by 98.8% downstream compared to the sewage outfall and were predominated by E. coli, implying intense fecal contamination from other sources. There was a progressive increase in antibiotic resistance from upstream, to outfall, to downstream. The highest resistance was for amoxicillin/clavulanate (80–83%), cefuroxime (47–73%), aztreonam (53%), and ciprofloxacin (40%). The STP is efficient in reducing bacterial counts and thus reducing environmental contamination. The recipient stream is contaminated with antibiotic-resistant bacteria listed as critically important for human use, which needs addressing. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. | amoxicillin plus clavulanic acid; antibiotic agent; aztreonam; ceftazidime; cefuroxime; ciprofloxacin; gentamicin; imipenem; tetracycline; water; Aeromonas hydrophila; antibiotic resistance; Article; bacterial count; controlled study; cross-sectional study; Escherichia coli; feces; Ghana; nonhuman; Pseudomonas aeruginosa; recipient; reduction (chemistry); sewage treatment; sewage treatment plant; water quality | Antibiotic residues; Antimicrobial resistance; One Health; Operational research; SORT IT; Sustainable development goals; Wastewater treatment |
| Applying a one health approach in global health and medicine: Enhancing involvement of medical schools and global health centers | Background: Multidisciplinary and multisectoral approaches such as One Health and related concepts (e.g., Planetary Health, EcoHealth) offer opportunities for synergistic expertise to address complex health threats. The connections between humans, animals, and the environment necessitate collaboration among sectors to comprehensively understand and reduce risks and consequences on health and wellbeing. One Health approaches are increasingly emphasized for national and international plans and strategies related to zoonotic diseases, food safety, antimicrobial resistance, and climate change, but to date, the possible applications in clinical practice and benefits impacting human health are largely missing. Methods: In 2018 the “Application of the One Health Approach to Global Health Centers” conference held at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine convened experts involved in One Health policy and practice. The conference examined issues relevant to One Health approaches, sharing examples of challenges and successes to guide application to medical school curricula and clinical practice for human health. This paper presents a synthesis of conference proceedings, framed around objectives identified from presentations and audience feedback. Findings and Recommendations: The following objectives provide opportunities for One Health involvement and benefits for medical schools and global health centers by: 1) Improving One Health resource sharing in global health and medical education; 2) Creating pathways for information flow in clinical medicine and global health practice; 3) Developing innovative partnerships for improved health sector outcomes; and 4) Informing and empowering health through public outreach. These objectives can leverage existing resources to deliver value to additional settings and stakeholders through resource efficiency, more holistic and effective service delivery, and greater ability to manage determinants of poor health status. We encourage medical and global health educators, practitioners, and students to explore entry points where One Health can add value to their work from local to global scale. © 2021 The Author(s). | Animals; Curriculum; Global Health; Humans; One Health; Schools, Medical; Students; Article; clinical medicine; clinical pathway; clinical practice; collaborative learning; consensus development; continuing education; education program; empowerment; global health; health care delivery; human; medical education; medical information; medical school; One Health; public health message; animal; curriculum; global health; student |
| Market characteristics and zoonotic disease risk perception in Cameroon bushmeat markets | Behavioral practices are one of the key factors facilitating zoonotic disease transmission, especially in individuals who have frequent contact with wild animals, yet practices of those who work and live in high-risk animal-human interfaces, such as wild animal ‘bushmeat’ markets in the Congo Basin are not well documented in the social, health and medical sciences. This region, where hunting, butchering, and consumption of wild animal meat is frequent, represents a hotspot for disease emergence, and has experienced zoonotic disease spillover events, traced back to close human-animal contact with bats and non-human primates. Using a One Health approach, we conducted wildlife surveillance, human behavioral research, and concurrent human and animal biological sampling to identify and characterize factors associated with zoonotic disease emergence and transmission. Research was conducted through the USAID Emerging Pandemic Threats program between 2010 and 2019 including qualitative studies of bushmeat markets, with selected study sites prioritized based on proximity to bushmeat markets. Sites included two hospitals where we conducted surveillance of individuals with syndromes of acute febrile illness, community sites where we enrolled actors of the animal value chain (ie. hunters, middlemen, transporters), and bushmeat markets, where we enrolled bushmeat vendors, butchers, market managers, cleaners, and shoppers. Mixed methods research was undertaken at these sites and included investigation of bushmeat market dynamics through observational research, focus group discussions, quantitative questionnaires, and interviews. Participants were asked about their risk perception of zoonotic disease transmission and specific activities related to bushmeat trade, local market conditions, and regulations on bushmeat trade in Cameroon. Risks associated with blood contact and animal infection were not well understood by most market actors. As bushmeat markets are an important disease interface, as seen with CoVID19, risk mitigation measures in markets and bushmeat alternative strategies are discussed. © 2020 The Author(s) | Animals; Cameroon; Congo; COVID-19; Humans; Meat; Perception; SARS-CoV-2; Zoonoses; Cameroon; Animalia; Primates; behavioral response; bushmeat; disease transmission; food market; risk perception; supply chain management; wild population; adult; animal hunting; Article; butchering; Cameroon; controlled study; disease association; disease surveillance; disease transmission; ecological procedures; environmental exposure; female; food contamination; hand washing; high risk behavior; human; human activities; infection risk; male; market; meat consumption; One Health; perception; population exposure; pyrexia idiopathica; risk reduction; seasonal variation; wild meat; zoonosis; animal; Congo; meat; perception; zoonosis | Animal value chain; Behavioral surveillance; Risk reduction; Wild animal markets; Zoonotic disease |
| The importance of animal welfare and Veterinary Services in a changing world; [L’importance du bien-être animal et des Services vétérinaires dans un monde en mutation]; [Importancia del bienestar animal y los Servicios Veterinarios en un mundo en plena transformación] | Animal welfare is an essential component of the future of sustainable agriculture and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. There is growing global recognition of the importance of animal welfare, which must always be considered as part of the decision-making around food and nutrition security. Veterinary Services, encompassing public and private veterinarians and para-veterinarians, are custodians of animal welfare and key players in future actions to improve it. The welfare of animals is everyone’s responsibility, from the individual farmer and practitioner to policymakers at the national and intergovernmental level. In this paper, after providing background information about current animal welfare issues and identifying animal welfare risks, the authors make a number of recommendations for action at the institutional and individual level. They do so because while the former is essential to generate change at scale and effective resourcing, the latter can create immediate action at a local level and drive change from the ground up. Without coordinated action from Veterinary Services, opportunities to improve animal welfare, alongside human and environmental health and well-being, may very well be lost, and animal welfare may fail to improve or even be at risk of decline. © 2021 Office International des Epizootes. All rights reserved. | Agriculture; Animal Welfare; Animals; Farmers; Humans; Veterinarians; Veterinary Medicine; agricultural worker; agriculture; animal; animal welfare; human; veterinarian; veterinary medicine | Animal welfare; Animal well-being; Five domains; One Health; One Welfare; Sustainable Development Goals; Sustainable production; Welfare |
| Seabirds as anthropization indicators in two different tropical biotopes: A One Health approach to the issue of antimicrobial resistance genes pollution in oceanic islands | Antimicrobial resistance is a quintessential One Health issue, among the most serious 21st century global threats to human health. Seabirds may act as sentinels of natural and anthropogenic changes in the marine ecosystem health, including pollution by antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs). We used real time PCR to identify and quantify 22 plasmid-mediated ARGs in the gastrointestinal microbiome of six wild seabird species, comparing an anthropized (Fernando de Noronha Archipelago – FNA) and a pristine biotope (Rocas Atoll – ROA), Brazil. Of 257 birds, 218 (84.8%) were positive to at least one ARG. ARG classes encoding resistance to tetracyclines (75.1%), quinolones (10.5%) and phenicols (10.5%) were the most prevalent, with tetracyclines significantly greater than the remaining classes (p < 0.05). Genes tet(S) (29.2%), tet(A) (28.8%), and tet(B) (24.9%) were the most commonly found and had a significantly greater prevalence when compared to the remaining ARGs (p < 0.05). The anthropized biotope presented statistically significant higher prevalence of sulfonamide- and quinolone-encoding ARGs in comparison with the pristine (respectively, p = 0.01 and p = 0.03), and higher sulII gene prevalence (p = 0.04), consistent with anthropogenic pressure. Migratory species (only present in ROA) showed statistically significant higher mcr-1 (polymyxins) and blaTEM (betalactam) prevalences (respectively, p = 0.009 and p = 0.02), and mcr-1 percentage load (p = 0.0079) in comparison with non-migratory. To our knowledge, this is the largest ARGs survey based on direct detection and quantification in seabirds worldwide, and the first to evaluate non-synanthropic species in oceanic islands. This is the first detection of mcr-1 in wild free-ranging seabirds in Brazil and in free-ranging migratory non-synanthropic seabirds worldwide. Our findings show the importance of biological and ecological factors, highlighting the role of seabirds as anthropization sentinels and ARGs-pollution environmental indicators (even in a pristine biotope), and their involvement in the One Health epidemiological chain of ARGs. © 2020 Elsevier B.V. | Animals; Anti-Bacterial Agents; Birds; Brazil; Drug Resistance, Bacterial; Ecosystem; Genes, Bacterial; Humans; Islands; One Health; Atlantic Ocean; Brazil; Fernando de Noronha; Pernambuco; Rio Grande do Norte; Rocas Atoll; Aves; Antibiotics; Ecosystems; Encoding (symbols); Genes; Health; Marine pollution; Microorganisms; Polymerase chain reaction; Signal encoding; Sulfur compounds; Tropics; beta lactam; chloramphenicol; polymyxin; quinolone; quinolone derivative; sulfonamide; tetracycline derivative; antiinfective agent; Anthropogenic changes; Anthropogenic pressures; Antimicrobial resistances; Direct detection; Ecological factors; Environmental indicators; Global threats; Oceanic islands; antibiotic resistance; bioindicator; biotope; ecosystem health; environmental indicator; gene; marine ecosystem; migratory species; pollution effect; pristine environment; seabird; animal dispersal; ARG gene; Article; Brazil; gene; logistic regression analysis; migratory species; nonhuman; polymerase chain reaction; population research; prevalence; priority journal; seabird; tetA gene; tetB gene; tetS gene; water pollution; water pollution indicator; animal; antibiotic resistance; bacterial gene; bird; ecosystem; genetics; human; island (geological); One Health; Health risks | Anthropization; Antibiotic; mcr-1; Migratory birds; Pristine environment; Wildlife |
| Global change increases zoonotic risk, COVID-19 changes risk perceptions: a plea for urban nature connectedness | Ebola and COVID-19 are textbook emerging diseases influenced by humans. Ebola is often considered a result of exotic nature threatening health. Conversely, COVID-19, emerged in an urban environment, entails risks worldwide. Geographical, virological and demographic differences influence risk perceptions and responses to both diseases. Because ecological understanding of urban human-animal relations improves disease risk assessment, we call for ethnographical exploration of this interface. ‘Global Urban Confinement Measures’ impact health by influencing disease perceptions, limiting nature access, and strengthening inequities. To prevent and mitigate zoonotic pandemics and their consequences, policy should promote nature connectedness, concert with stakeholders, and integrate nature-city-inhabitant interactions. © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. | Eco Health; One Health; urban environmental justice |
| Conservation medicine and One Health in zoos: Scope, obstacles, and unrecognized potential | Zoo veterinarians and allied professionals have been contributing to conservation medicine (CM) and One Health (OH) activities for more than two decades. Although the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) considers conservation a key part of its mission, little published material exists about the extent of AZA work in CM/OH or the challenges and opportunities associated with these endeavors. To better understand the current scope of CM/OH in zoos, we surveyed 53 AZA-accredited institutions from April through October of 2016. We obtained information on CM/OH infrastructure, support for expansion in this area, and strategies to overcome perceived obstacles hindering CM/OH from becoming a core AZA activity. Survey results revealed that while most zoos favor greater investment in CM/OH programs, awareness, and understanding of CM/OH across the broader zoo community and public is lacking. The majority of respondents stated that overcoming this challenge is paramount to attaining support for CM/OH initiatives. In spite of these obstacles, survey respondents highlighted many positive developments in CM/OH. We found that 84% of zoos surveyed are actively engaged in CM/OH activities, and 12% house formal CM/OH programs. Another 8% of respondents said their institutions were developing CM/OH programs. Perhaps most noteworthy, we found that zoo size did not have a significant bearing on the financial amount allocated toward an institution’s CM/OH activities. This suggests that all zoos, regardless of size, can make meaningful contributions to the growing movement of CM/OH and help redefine the role of zoos within this movement. © 2020 Wiley Periodicals LLC | Animal Technicians; Conservation of Natural Resources; Humans; One Health; Surveys and Questionnaires; Veterinarians; economics; environmental protection; human; One Health; paramedical personnel; questionnaire; veterinarian | AZA; conservation medicine; multidisciplinary; One Health; zoos |
| Phenotypic antimicrobial susceptibility of escherichia coli from raw meats, ready-to-eat meats, and their related samples in one health context | Meat is an important food source that can provide a significant amount of protein for human development. The occurrence of bacteria that are resistant to antimicrobials in meat poses a public health risk. This study evaluated the occurrence and antimicrobial resistance of E. coli (Escherichia coli) isolated from raw meats, ready-to-eat (RTE) meats and their related samples in Ghana. E. coli was isolated using the USA-FDA Bacteriological Analytical Manual and phenotypic antimicrobial susceptibility test was performed by the disk diffusion method. Of the 200 examined meats and their related samples, 38% were positive for E. coli. Notably, E. coli was highest in raw beef (80%) and lowest in RTE pork (0%). The 45 E. coli isolates were resistant ≥ 50% to amoxicillin, trimethoprim and tetracycline. They were susceptible to azithromycin (87.1%), chloramphenicol (81.3%), imipenem (74.8%), gentamicin (72.0%) and ciprofloxacin (69.5%). A relatively high intermediate resistance of 33.0% was observed for ceftriaxone. E. coli from raw meats, RTE meats, hands of meat sellers and working tools showed some differences and similarities in their phenotypic antimicrobial resistance patterns. Half (51.1%) of the E. coli isolates exhibited multidrug resistance. The E. coli isolates showed twenty-two different resistant patterns, with a multiple antibiotic resistance index of 0.0 to 0.7. The resistant pattern amoxicillin (A, n = 6 isolates) and amoxicillin-trimethoprim (A-TM, n = 6 isolates) were the most common. This study documents that raw meats, RTE meats and their related samples in Ghana are potential sources of antimicrobial-resistant E. coli and pose a risk for the transfer of resistant bacteria to the food chain, environment and humans. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. | Antimicrobial resistance; Bacteria; Food chain; Humans; Meat; One-health |
| Genomic Distinctions of LA-MRSA ST398 on Dairy Farms From Different German Federal States With a Low Risk of Severe Human Infections | Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) have been found on German dairy farms and may be the cause of difficult-to-treat bovine mastitis. Considering the one health approach, MRSA might be transmitted from animals to humans raising the risk for severe infections. On 17 German dairy farms with a history of MRSA detection, MRSA strains were isolated from quarter milk, bulk tank milk, and swab samples of calves, heifers, pigs, and the environment. A selection of 33 isolates was analyzed using whole-genome sequencing and antimicrobial resistance testing. All detected MRSA strains were attributed to the livestock-associated sequence type 398. Methicillin-resistance was associated with the mecA gene in the staphylococcal cassette chromosome (SCC)mec types IVa (7/33) or V (26/33). The MRSA strains across the German federal states showed large allelic differences indicating independent development and distribution. On one farm, a clonal MRSA isolate was widely spread among different animals and the milking equipment. Moreover, MRSA transmission between two dairy farms in one federal state seems to be likely. In depth studies indicated that the resistance gene prediction and phenotypic resistance are in good agreement. Twenty eight strains were determined to exhibit a non-wildtype phenotype (resistant) against up to seven antimicrobial substances with an overall resistance to β-lactams and tetracycline. Ten different phenotypic antimicrobial resistance patterns were found among the MRSA strains. The strains harbored a wide virulence gene repertoire, of which some of them are related to bovine mastitis. However, the isolates lacked typical human infection associated factors such as the immune evasion cluster genes, staphylococcal enterotoxin genes, or Panton-Valentine leukocidin genes leading to the assumption for a low risk for severe human infections and foodborne diseases. © Copyright © 2021 Lienen, Schnitt, Hammerl, Maurischat and Tenhagen. | aztreonam; cefoxitin; chloramphenicol; clindamycin; erythromycin; gentamicin; kanamycin; leukocidin; lincosamide; macrolide; Panton Valentine leukocidin; penicillin derivative; spectinomycin; Staphylococcus enterotoxin; tetracycline; tiamulin; trimethoprim; virulence factor; von Willebrand factor; antibiotic resistance; antibiotic sensitivity; Article; bacterial virulence; biofilm; bioinformatics; bovine mastitis; dairy cattle; dairying; DNA extraction; food poisoning; genetic recombination; genetic variability; genotype; heifer; human; human infection; immune evasion; infection; mastitis; methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus; milk; mrsa st398; nonhuman; pathogenicity island; phenotype; phylogeny; pig; polymerase chain reaction; prevalence; quality control | antimicrobial resistance; dairy farms; LA-MRSA; one health; phylogenetic relationship |
| A One Health perspective on the issue of the antibiotic resistance | For a few years now, the One Health concept has appeared to go hand in hand with the issue of antibiotic resistance as the most comprehensive and global solution. As part of a study comparing the publicization process of the links between antibiotic resistance and food in France and in the United States, this paper retraces the One Health concept’s trajectory in terms of significations and (re)definitions, according to the actors adopting this approach as a viable solution. Furthermore, this paper questions the concept’s take over impact in antibiotic resistance reframing as well as its expansion in terms of functioning and applicability. Within social sciences research, interest in the issue of antibiotic resistance and the One Health approach has largely been established in recent years by a growing number of studies examining its different and multiple aspects. The specificity of this research lies in its two different levels of questioning the One Health concept. Firstly, the concept seems to be referred to by various formulas, from its oldest form, One Medicine-1984, to One World, One Health. Secondly, the concept is being redefined as links between a plurality of domains are recognized (human health, animal health, the environment, and food), following the emergence of international health and food crises and as their multi-level consequences are being addressed by various stakeholders, including public authorities, political leaders, and economic actors. © E. Badau, published by EDP Sciences, 2021. | Animals; Drug Resistance, Microbial; France; Humans; One Health; United States; animal; antibiotic resistance; France; human; One Health; United States | Action program; Antibiotic resistance; Discourse analysis; Formula; One Health |
| Antimicrobial resistance genes and diversity of clones among esbl-and acquired ampc-producing escherichia coli isolated from fecal samples of healthy and sick cats in Portugal | The aim of the study was to analyze the mechanisms of resistance in extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-and acquired AmpC (qAmpC)-producing Escherichia coli isolates from healthy and sick cats in Portugal. A total of 141 rectal swabs recovered from 98 sick and 43 healthy cats were processed for cefotaxime-resistant (CTXR) E. coli recovery (in MacConkey agar supplemented with 2 µg/mL cefotaxime). The matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrom-etry (MALDI-TOF-MS) method was used for E. coli identification and antimicrobial susceptibility was performed by a disk diffusion test. The presence of resistance/virulence genes was tested by PCR sequencing. The phylogenetic typing and multilocus sequence typing (MLST) were determined by specific PCR sequencing. CTXR E. coli isolates were detected in seven sick and six healthy cats (7.1% and 13.9%, respectively). Based on the synergy tests, 11 of 13 CTXR E. coli isolates (one/sample) were ESBL-producers (ESBL total rate: 7.8%) carrying the following ESBL genes: blaCTX-M-1 (n = 3), blaCTX-M-15 (n = 3), blaCTX-M-55 (n = 2), blaCTX-M-27 (n = 2) and blaCTX-M-9 (n = 1). Six different sequence types were identified among ESBL-producers (sequence type/associated ESBLs): ST847/CTX-M-9, CTX-M-27, CTX-M-1; ST10/CTX-M-15, CTX-M-27; ST6448/CTX-M-15, CTX-M-55; ST429/CTX-M-15; ST101/CTX-M-1 and ST40/CTX-M-1. Three of the CTXR isolates were CMY-2-producers (qAmpC rate: 2.1%); two of them were ESBL-positive and one ESBL-negative. These isolates were typed as ST429 and ST6448 and were obtained in healthy or sick cats. The phylogenetic groups A/B1/D/clade 1 were detected among ESBL-and qAmpC-producing isolates. Cats are carriers of qAmpC (CMY-2)-and ESBL-producing E. coli isolates (mostly of variants of CTX-M group 1) of diverse clonal lineages, which might represent a public health problem due to the proximity of cats with humans regarding a One Health perspective. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. | amikacin; amoxicillin plus clavulanic acid; ampicillin; aztreonam; beta lactamase AmpC; cefotaxime; cefoxitin; ceftazidime; chloramphenicol; ciprofloxacin; cotrimoxazole; extended spectrum beta lactamase; gentamicin; imipenem; nalidixic acid; streptomycin; tetracycline; tobramycin; animal experiment; animal tissue; antibiotic sensitivity; Article; bacterial virulence; bacterium detection; cat; cefotaxime resistance; CMY-2 gene; CTX-M gene; disk diffusion; Escherichia coli; feces analysis; gene; genetic variability; integron; matrix assisted laser desorption ionization time of flight mass spectrometry; minimum inhibitory concentration; multilocus sequence typing; nonhuman; One Health; polymerase chain reaction; public health; rectal swab; sequence analysis | Antimicrobial resistance; Cats; CMY-2; CTX-M; E. coli; Extended spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL), AmpC beta-lactamase; Public health |
| Q fever vaccination: Australian animal science and veterinary students’ One Health perspectives on Q fever prevention | Unvaccinated animal science and veterinary students are at risk of Q fever, a vaccine-preventable zoonotic disease transmitted from animals to humans. We investigated students’ perspectives on Q fever prevention using a One Health approach combining animal, human and environmental health. Animal science and veterinary students enrolled at the University of Adelaide in 2019 were invited to participate in an online survey to explore their perceptions about Q fever and prevention strategies. We undertook descriptive analysis and logistic regression. Overall, 46% of students reported little to no knowledge of Q fever. Over three-quarters of students reported transmission of Q fever via aerosol inhalation and animal culling, whilst other modes including sexual transmission between humans (7%) was poorly identified. The majority of students reported exposure to cattle, sheep and goats. Of those who reported vaccination status, 5% veterinary and 61% animal science students were unvaccinated for Q fever. Challenges concerning vaccination included cost, time and access to healthcare with strategies aimed at promoting awareness, improving healthcare access and subsidized and mass vaccination. Knowledge of Q fever among respondents, particularly about disease transmission was suboptimal. As a key principle to One Health approach, adherence to biosecurity guidelines during contact with animals could potentially reduce zoonoses including Q fever transmission. Improving access to Q fever vaccine for unvaccinated students is a priority. Findings underscore that university policy for Q fever vaccination needs to consider subsidized vaccination for both animal science and veterinary students. © 2020 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. | Animals; Australia; Cattle; Goats; Humans; One Health; Q Fever; Sheep; Students; Vaccination; Zoonoses; vaccine; adult; aerosol; Article; awareness; cross-sectional study; disease transmission; exercise; female; human; male; prophylaxis; Q fever; questionnaire; sexual transmission; vaccination; young adult; animal; Australia; bovine; goat; One Health; Q fever; sheep; student; zoonosis | animal science; Australia; One Health; Q fever; vaccination; veterinary |
| Bracing for the Storm: One Health Care System’s Planning for the COVID-19 Surge | Problem: University of Washington Medicine (UW Medicine), an academic health system in Washington State, was at the epicenter of the first outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. The extent of emergency activation needed to adequately respond to this global pandemic was not immediately known, as the evolving situation differed significantly from any past disaster response preparations in that there was potential for exponential growth of infection, unproven mitigation strategies, serious risk to health care workers, and inadequate supply chains for critical equipment. Approach: The rapid transition of the UW Medicine system to account for projected COVID-19 and usual patient care, while balancing patient and staff safety and conservation of resources, represents an example of an adaptive disaster response. Key Insights: Although our organization’s ability to meet the needs of the public was uncertain, we planned and implemented changes to space, supply management, and staffing plans to meet the influx of patients across our clinical entities. The surge management plan called for specific actions to be implemented based on the level of activity. This article describes the approach taken by UW Medicine as we braced for the storm. © 2020 The Joint Commission | Article; coronavirus disease 2019; emergency ward; evolution; health care delivery; health care planning; hospital patient; hospital personnel; human; infection prevention; intensive care unit; One Health; outcome assessment; outpatient; pandemic; patient care; postgraduate education; resource management |
| Wildlife-pet markets in a one-health context | Background and Aim: Wildlife markets are centers of trade involving live animals and their derivatives from wild-caught and captive-bred non-domesticated animals, including for the culinary, fashion, traditional medicine, curio, and pet sectors. These markets occur in Southeast Asia, India, North America, Latin America, Europe, Africa, and elsewhere. This study aims to address a diversity of related issues that have a one-health bearing while focusing on wildlife markets in relation to the pet trade. Across relevant regions and countries, all major animal classes are traded at wildlife-pet markets. Wildlife markets, in general, are considered distinct from so-called “wet markets” at which domesticated animals, fish, and other “seafood” are offered only for consumption. Several aspects of wildlife markets have attracted scientific and popular scrutiny, including animal welfare concerns, species conservation threats, legality, ecological alteration, introduction of invasive alien species, presence of undescribed species, and public and agricultural animal health issues. Materials and Methods: Onsite inspections were conducted for markets in the United States, Spain, Germany, The Netherlands, and the UK, as well as observational research of visual imagery of market conditions, and we compared these conditions with evidence-based standards for animal welfare and public health management. Results: Wildlife markets globally shared common similar structures and practices including the presence of sick, injured, or stressed animals; mixing of animals of uncertain origin and health state; and no specific or any hygiene protocols, with issues of animal welfare, public health and safety, agricultural animal health, and other one-health concerns being inherently involved. Conclusion: We conclude that wildlife markets are incompatible with responsible standards and practices, and we recommend that such events are banned globally to ameliorate inherent major problems. © 2021 Warwick and Steedman. All Rights Reserved. | agriculture; animal disease; animal health; animal welfare; Article; contamination; environmental health; Germany; heat stress; hygiene; legal aspect; market; Netherlands; nonhuman; population research; prevalence; public health; safety; salmonellosis; Spain; species conservation; United Kingdom; United States; West Nile virus; wildlife; wildlife market; zoonosis | animal welfare; disease; exotic pet; one-health; pathogen; public health; wildlife market; zoonoses |
