Long distance travelers likely contributing to antibiotic resistance’s spread

Long distance travelers likely contributing to antibiotic resistance’s spread

by | Sep 8, 2015 | Antimicrobial resistance

Long distance travelers likely contributing to antibiotic resistance’s spread

Washington, DC – August 20, 2015 – Swedish exchange students who studied in India and in central Africa returned from their sojourns with an increased diversity of antibiotic resistance genes in their gut microbiomes. The research is published 10 August in Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

In the study, the investigators found a 2.6-fold increase in genes encoding resistance to sulfonamide, a 7.7-fold increase in trimethoprim resistance genes, and a 2.6-fold increase in resistance to beta-lactams, all of this without any exposure to antibiotics among the 35 exchange students. These resistance genes were not particularly abundant in the students prior to their travels, but the increases are nonetheless quite significant.

The germ of the research was concern about the burgeoning increase in antibiotic resistance. “I am a physician specializing in infectious diseases, and I have seen antibiotics that I could safely rely on ten years ago being unable to cure my patients,” said principal investigator Anders Johansson, MD, PhD, Chief, Infection Control, Umeå University and the County Council of Våsterbotten, Sweden.

However, Johansson also questioned the conventional wisdom that overuse of antibiotics was entirely responsible for the surge in resistance, despite the fact that overuse is a huge problem. “Currently, I head an infection control department, and from this position it is very evident that resistance is no longer generated primarily in the hospital,” he explained. Instead, patients bring bacteria carrying resistance genes into the hospital as part of their own microbial communities, he said. “We hypothesized that the gut microbiome of humans serves as a vehicle for moving many different resistance genes very large distances, even in the absence of antibiotic treatment.”

And in fact, the increases the investigators observed in abundance and diversity of resistance genes occurred despite the fact that none of the students took antibiotics either before or during travel. The increase seen in resistance genes could have resulted from ingesting food containing resistant bacteria, or from contaminated water, the investigators write. Providing further support for the hypothesis that resistance genes increased during travel, genes for extended spectrum beta-lactamase, which dismembers penicillin and related antibiotics, was present in just one of the 35 students prior to travel, but in 12 students after they returned to Sweden.

Collecting samples of resistance genes was simple. “We asked students going abroad on exchange programs to provide a sample of their feces before and after traveling,” said Johansson. But the study was different from previous studies of this issue in using metagenomics sequencing, a modern method. That enabled the investigators to sample the entire microbiome of each student, and to sequence every resistance gene therein, rather than focusing on resistance genes in those few bacterial species that grow well on culture plates.

“Our results spotlight that to reduce antibiotic resistance we need to minimize dispersal rates from the healthcare system, and importantly, at the societal level,” said Johansson. Suppressing further spread after travelers return to their home countries is crucial, and depends, he added, upon having well-informed citizens and a well-functioning public health system.

This article originally appeared on the EurekAlert website.

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Vaccine for MERS coronavirus ‘looks promising’

Vaccine for MERS coronavirus ‘looks promising’

by | Sep 8, 2015 | Zoonoses

Vaccine for MERS coronavirus ‘looks promising’

A prototype vaccine against the lung infection MERS coronavirus has shown promising results, scientists say. The study, published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, suggests the vaccine guards against the disease in monkeys and camels. Researchers hope with more work it could be turned into a jab for humans.

Mers has infected 1,400 people and claimed 500 lives since 2012. But no specific treatment or preventative medicines exist. In the majority of cases, individuals are thought to have caught Mers (Middle-East respiratory syndrome) through close contact with infected patients in hospital.

5. MERS

Two-prong approach

But experts suspect camels also play an important role – acting as a host for the disease.

The researchers, led by University of Pennsylvania, say their experimental vaccine could be a “valuable tool” in two different ways – first, to immunise camels to stop it spreading to human populations and, secondly, as a jab to protect individuals at risk of getting Mers.

In the trial, the vaccine was tested on blood samples taken from camels and appeared to kick-start the production of antibody proteins that may help mount a defence against the virus.

And when it was given to macaque monkeys later exposed to Mers, the animals did not become ill.

Prof Andrew Easton, from Warwick University, described the research as a “significant step forward in the generation of a vaccine to prevent Mers disease”.

He added: “The data show that the vaccine is capable of generating protective antibodies in laboratory studies and also in camels.

“This is very promising as a possible way to reduce virus spread in camels and therefore to reduce the risk of infection in humans.”

Other experts caution that since the virus tends to affect macaques less severely than humans, it is not yet clear whether it could definitely be used as a vaccine in human populations.

The research was funded in part by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in the US and Inovio Pharmaceuticals.

This post originally appeared on the News section of the BBC website.

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Dolphin health is connected to human well-being

Dolphin health is connected to human well-being

by | Sep 8, 2015 | One Health

Dolphin health is connected to human well-being

Dolphins are known to marine biologists as sentinel animals, if they are ailing, we humans may be next. The Indian River Lagoon, an ecologically diverse estuary that covers 40 percent of Florida’s east coast, is ailing. The area is home to a large human population who live near its shores and plays a significant part in the area’s economy. The lagoon’s nitrogen-saturated waters—due to fertilizer run-off and other pollution—is likely promoting the algae blooms that are toxic to marine mammals and birds.

4. DolphinsFlorida Institute of Technology assistant professor Spencer Fire and researchers from lead agency Georgia Aquarium and other conservation partners recently completed a study to better understand the health of Atlantic bottlenose in the IRL, and the data collected from the dolphins is expected to help researchers understand how toxic algal blooms can harm wildlife.

The research program known as HERA, or Health and Environmental Risk Assessment, examines how diseases affecting dolphins are related to potential environmental stressors and how they serve as an early warning system of changes that could affect animal and human health. Initial findings are expected in the coming weeks.

For over two weeks, a team of more than 50 specialists performed health assessments on more than 25 dolphins. The samples collected included blood, blubber and skin biopsies for genetics, as well as all the metabolic and physiological data like respiration rate, heart rate and general health parameters. Fire was specifically collecting gastric samples because of his focus on biotoxins make their way into the food web for these animals.

The biological samples collected from the dolphins will be analyzed, and the data will then be added to the HERA database.

Fire, who helped veterinarians assemble and assess the dolphins, had the rare opportunity to gather samples from healthy animals.

“The data we have for biotoxins in live marine mammals from the Indian River Lagoon are inconclusive, so this was a way to get additional data,” he said.

Fire wants to use the data as a baseline to gauge when toxin levels become fatal during an algal bloom.

Under a federal permit, HERA program researchers have safely examined and released more than 350 , primarily from the Indian River Lagoon, since 2003. This year’s assessments were in the northern IRL, where there’ve been three unusual mortality events, or unexpected strandings in which significant numbers of dolphins died.

“Dolphins are like the proverbial canaries in a coal mine,” said Gregory Bossart, V.M.D., Ph.D., chief veterinary officer and senior vice president at Georgia Aquarium. “Understanding their health and determining what impacts them is important because they can serve as indicators of ocean health, giving insight into larger environmental issues that may also have implications for .”

Fire added, “If animal is deteriorating over a trend of several years because their environment is deteriorating, what does that mean for humans? We share the same habitat, we eat a lot of the same food, we use the same waters.”

Since the internationally renowned HERA program began, it has documented emerging disease, antibiotic resistant bacteria, immune dysfunction and high levels of some toxins, including mercury in IRL dolphins

This article originally appeared on the phys website.

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Infographic: How to read a scientific paper

Infographic: How to read a scientific paper

by | Sep 8, 2015 | Research

Infographic: How to read a scientific paper

Mastering this skill can help you excel at research, peer review and writing your own papers

Much of a scientist’s work involves reading research papers, whether it’s to stay up to date in their field, advance their scientific understanding, review manuscripts, or gather information for a project proposal or grant application. Because scientific articles are different from other texts, like novels or newspaper stories, they should be read differently.

Research papers follow the well-known IMRD format — an abstract followed by the Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion. They have multiple cross references and tables as well as supplementary material, such as data sets, lab protocols and gene sequences. All those characteristics can make them dense and complex. Being able to effectively understanding them is a matter of practice.

Reading a scientific paper should not be done in a linear way (from beginning to end); instead, it should be done strategically and with a critical mindset, questioning your understanding and the findings. Sometimes you will have to go backwards and forwards, take notes and have multiples tabs opened in your browser.

Here are some tips for reading and understanding research papers.

infographic-how-to-read-scientific-papers-1-638

This article was originally posted on the science communication section of the Elsevier website.

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Experts meet to battle livestock diseases

Experts meet to battle livestock diseases

by | Sep 8, 2015 | Infectious Diseases

Experts meet to battle livestock diseases

Experts from more than 90 countries have met in Paris to discuss how to minimise the threat of infectious animal diseases escaping from laboratories.

The first global conference on biological threat reduction, hosted by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), in collaboration with the World Health Organisation (WHO), brought together a range of participants.

Specialists from public health, animal health, scientists, veterinarians and security sectors from international organisations and national governments attended the gathering.

Among the diseases discussed were rinderpest, a deadly disease also known as cattle plague that was officially wiped out of livestock in May 2011. Samples of the virus are still stored in dozens of laboratories worldwide.

The OIE is concerned poor security or a malicious act could see the virus reintroduced to cattle stocks, which it warns, would cause food prices to rise. It wants all samples stored by laboratories to be destroyed.

Biological weapons

All animal disease agents, including those transmissible to humans, have the potential to escape by accident from laboratories or to be used as biological weapons because of their low cost and ready availability.

Once infectious diseases have been eradicated special risks arise from the potential for accidental or deliberate infection.

“Unless the international community takes meaningful action to fulfil their obligations to destroy and sequester eradicated pathogens (such as rinderpest), risks will increase over time as more diseases become eradicated,” said Dr Bernard Vallet, director general of the OIE.

Delegates stressed the importance of good governance of animal and public health national systems, allowing early detection and rapid response to any new disease outbreak. That would protect the society and neighbouring countries from potential disasters of natural, accidental or intentional origin, they concluded.

Participants agreed the health and security sectors needed to improve cooperation and speak with one voice on the urgent need to invest in strengthening health systems.

Social and economic costs

The social and economic costs and benefits of investing in health systems in peacetime far outweighed the costs of responding to a crisis linked with a preventable biological disaster, they argued. Investments in the systems needed to support these policies should be considered a priority in all countries, they agreed.

Internationally adopted standards were the basis for global infectious disease prevention and control, including early detection and rapid response to biological events, and for strong animal health and human health systems, the experts insisted.

“By complying with international standards for health systems, set by the OIE and WHO, countries demonstrate that they stand a good chance of detecting and tackling animal and human health threats,” said Vallet.

Many countries are unable to meet these standards, so the OIE, together with the WHO, has established a comprehensive global framework for strengthening in parallel public and animal health systems.

“In addition, we have made progress in establishing good governance in the animal sector, as we have already responded to requests for assistance from 133 of our 188 member countries,” Vallet added.

This article originally appeared on the GlobalMeat News webite.

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