One Health Outlook最新文献

Background: Globally, chicken is known to be a reservoir for the spread of antimicrobial resistance genes to humans. In Nigeria, antimicrobial drugs are readily accessible for use in poultry production, either for preventive or therapeutic purposes. Extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing Escherichia coli (ESBL-EC) are transmissible to humans because of their zoonotic potentials. People working very closely with chickens either on farms or markets are at greater risk. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence and zoonotic transmission of ESBL-EC among poultry-workers, chickens, and poultry environments in Abuja, Nigeria.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study among workers, chickens and poultry environment in selected farms/chicken markets in Abuja. Stool, faecal, and environmental samples were collected from apparently healthy workers, chickens, and farm/market environments from December 2018 to April 2019. Data were collected electronically using an open data kit (ODK) installed on a Smartphone. Antimicrobial resistance was determined using broth micro-dilution methods against a panel of 14 antimicrobial agents. We carried out the phenotypic and genotypic characterization of the isolates. Data were analyzed by computing frequencies, proportions and spearman's correlation (ρ).

Results: Of 429 samples, 26.8% (n = 115) were positive for Escherichia coli (E. coli). Of the 115 E. coli isolates, 32.2% (n = 37) were confirmed ESBL producers by phenotypic characterization. Prevalence of ESBL-EC was highest among both poultry-workers (37.8%; n = 14) and chickens (37.8%; n = 14) followed by the environment (24.3%; n = 9). Both human and chicken isolates showed similar patterns of multidrug resistance to tested antimicrobials with a positive correlation (ρ = 0.91). Among ESBL producers, we observed the dissemination of blaCTX-M (10.8%; n = 4) genes. The coexistence of blaCTX-M-15 and blaTEM-1 genes was observed in 8.1% (n = 3) of the isolates, out of which (66.7%; n = 2) were chicken isolates from the farm, while a single human isolate was from the chicken market.

Conclusions: ESBL-EC isolates were prevalent amongst apparently healthy individuals, chickens and the poultry farm/market environment in Abuja. It is important to educate healthcare workers that people in proximity with poultry are a high-risk group for faecal carriage of ESBL-EC, hence pose a higher risk to the general population for the spread of antimicrobial resistance.

Background: The inappropriate use of antibiotics is a major issue in clinical practice in Greece with serious implications for public health and animal health. The purpose of the present study was to provide a first insight into the use of antibiotics by small animal practitioners in Greece and assess their compliance with general rules for the rational use of antibiotics. This is the first survey of its kind in Greece.

Methods: A questionnaire was designed to collect basic information on the use of antibiotics by pet veterinarians. The questionnaire was sent to a total of 70 veterinarians mainly operating in the region of Attica, a region that comprises almost 50% of the Greek population and where veterinarians are engaged solely in small animal practice. The questionnaire consisted of 37 closed questions dealing with various aspects on the use of antibiotics.

Results: The majority of practitioners report cases where the pet owner initiated antibiotic treatment without veterinary prescription. Almost every clinician reported owner-compliance challenges. Regarding microbiological analysis, 73% of respondents initiate empirical treatment while waiting for laboratory results or use antibiogram only when the treatment is unsuccessful. Eighty-eight per cent declared to use antimicrobials postoperatively in clean surgical procedures. Different types of antimicrobials and treatment durations than the ones proposed by guidelines on rational use of antibiotics are preferred for various organ systems e.g. in urinary and gastrointestinal infections.

Conclusions: Our findings suggest the need for guidelines on antibiotic use in small animal practice in Greece, and the deployment of systematic surveillance on antimicrobials use and resistance to inform the initial choice of antibiotics upon local antimicrobial resistance profiles. Targeting the other end of the problem, pet owners, our findings indicate the need to educate them on the rational use of antibiotics and, critically, stop antibiotic availability without prescription.

Background: Childhood stunting and malnutrition condemn millions of people globally to a life of disadvantage and cognitive and physical impairment. Though increasing egg consumption is often seen as an important solution for low and middle income countries (including Ethiopia), emerging evidence suggests that greater exposure to poultry feces may also inhibit child growth due to the effects of enteric bacteria, especially Campylobacter, on gut health.

Methods: In this rapid ethnographic study, we explored village poultry production, child dietary practices, and environmental hygiene conditions as they relate to Campylobacter risk and intervention in 16 villages in Haramaya Woreda, Eastern Ethiopia.

Results: In the study area, we found that women assumed primary responsibility to care for both chickens and children: in feeding, housing, and healthcare. Most chickens were free-range local indigenous breeds, and flock sizes were small and unstable due to epidemics, seasonal trends, reproductive patterns, and lack of food. Generally, eggs were seen as "too luxurious" to be eaten, and were predominantly sold at local markets for scarce cash, despite high malnutrition rates. Local narratives of extreme poverty, social dietary norms, parental fatalism, and lack of "dietary consciousness" (as it was called) were invoked to explain this. We found that homesteads were highly contaminated with human and animal feces. Although community members viewed chicken feces and poultry gastrointestinal contents as particularly noxious in comparison to other animals because of their feeding behaviour, they did not relate them to any particular disease. Shared human-animal housing and childcare practices place children at high risk of exposure to enteric bacteria from animal manure, despite daily routines designed to manage the domestic landscape.

Conclusions: Addressing childhood stunting and malnutrition through egg production in rural landscapes like Haramaya must navigate three distinct health and care regimes: for children, chickens, and home environments. Interventions should be based on a holistic approach to social and economic empowerment, one that considers both women and men and integrates nutrition, health, and community change as its overarching goal.

Whole genome sequencing (WGS) of foodborne pathogens has become an effective method for investigating the information contained in the genome sequence of bacterial pathogens. In addition, its highly discriminative power enables the comparison of genetic relatedness between bacteria even on a sub-species level. For this reason, WGS is being implemented worldwide and across sectors (human, veterinary, food, and environment) for the investigation of disease outbreaks, source attribution, and improved risk characterization models. In order to extract relevant information from the large quantity and complex data produced by WGS, a host of bioinformatics tools has been developed, allowing users to analyze and interpret sequencing data, starting from simple gene-searches to complex phylogenetic studies. Depending on the research question, the complexity of the dataset and their bioinformatics skill set, users can choose between a great variety of tools for the analysis of WGS data. In this review, we describe the relevant approaches for phylogenomic studies for outbreak studies and give an overview of selected tools for the characterization of foodborne pathogens based on WGS data. Despite the efforts of the last years, harmonization and standardization of typing tools are still urgently needed to allow for an easy comparison of data between laboratories, moving towards a one health worldwide surveillance system for foodborne pathogens.

Background: Bats provide important ecosystem services; however, current evidence supports that they host several zoonotic viruses, including species of the Coronaviridae family. If bats in close interaction with humans host and shed coronaviruses with zoonotic potential, such as the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome virus, spillover may occur. Therefore, strategies aiming to mitigate potential spillover and disease emergence, while supporting the conservation of bats and their important ecological roles are needed. Past research suggests that coronavirus shedding in bats varies seasonally following their reproductive cycle; however, shedding dynamics have been assessed in only a few species, which does not allow for generalization of findings across bat taxa and geographic regions.

Methods: To assess the generalizability of coronavirus shedding seasonality, we sampled hundreds of bats belonging to several species with different life history traits across East Africa at different times of the year. We assessed, via Bayesian modeling, the hypothesis that chiropterans, across species and spatial domains, experience seasonal trends in coronavirus shedding as a function of the reproductive cycle.

Results: We found that, beyond spatial, taxonomic, and life history differences, coronavirus shedding is more expected when pups are becoming independent from the dam and that juvenile bats are prone to shed these viruses.

Conclusions: These findings could guide policy aimed at the prevention of spillover in limited-resource settings, where longitudinal surveillance is not feasible, by identifying high-risk periods for coronavirus shedding. In these periods, contact with bats should be avoided (for example, by impeding or forbidding people access to caves). Our proposed strategy provides an alternative to culling - an ethically questionable practice that may result in higher pathogen levels - and supports the conservation of bats and the delivery of their key ecosystem services.

Recurring outbreaks of emerging and re-emerging zoonoses, such as Ebola virus disease, avian influenza, and Nipah virus, serve as a reminder that the health of humans, animals, and the environment are interconnected and that early response to emerging zoonotic pathogens requires a coordinated, interdisciplinary, cross-sectoral approach. As our world becomes increasingly connected, emerging diseases pose a greater threat, requiring coordination at local, regional, and global levels. One Health is a multisectoral, transdisciplinary, and collaborative approach promoted to more effectively address these complex health threats. Despite strong advocacy for One Health, challenges for practical implementation remain. Here we discuss the value of the One Health approach for addressing global health challenges. We also share strategies applied to achieve successful outcomes through the USAID Emerging Pandemic Threats Program PREDICT project, which serve as useful case studies for implementing One Health approaches. Lastly, we explore methods for promoting more formal One Health implementation to capitalize on the added value of shared knowledge and leveraged resources.

There is increased recognition that complex health challenges at the human-animal-environmental interface require a transdisciplinary, "whole-of-society" approach. This philosophy is particularly pertinent in Aotearoa-New Zealand because of the country's relatively isolated island ecosystem, economic reliance on agriculture and its intensification, and existing indigenous worldview that emphasises holism and interconnectivity between humans, animals and the environment. In New Zealand, the One Health Aotearoa (OHA) alliance was established in order to better connect researchers and to address a growing number of infectious diseases challenges. The emphasis of OHA is to bring together and facilitate interactions between people from diverse disciplines, link to stakeholders and communities, and engage with policy-makers, government operational agencies, and funders, thus providing a holistic and integrative systems-thinking approach to address priority questions and achieve desired outcomes in One Health. The initial focus of OHA has been on infectious diseases, but there is increasing recognition of the potential benefits of the alliance to address broader complex issues. Greater involvement and overlap of the environmental sciences, human and animal health sciences, social science, and indigenous kaupapa Māori research is particularly critical for ensuring its success within the New Zealand context. Given the economic and cultural importance of New Zealand's "clean, green" image, a One Health approach that draws strongly on the environmental sciences makes particular sense. Furthermore, as the global environment becomes increasingly stressed by anthropogenic pressures our research may hold potential solutions for similar challenges elsewhere.

Background: The second largest Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak began in the Democratic Republic of Congo in July 2018 in North Kivu Province. Data suggest the outbreak is not epidemiologically linked to the 2018 outbreak in Equateur Province, and that independent introduction of Ebola virus (EBOV) into humans occurred. We tested for antibodies to ebolaviruses in febrile patients seeking care in North Kivu Province prior to the EVD outbreak.

Methods: Patients were enrolled between May 2017 and April 2018, before the declared start of the outbreak in eastern DRC. Questionnaires were administered to collect demographic and behavioural information to identify risk factors for exposure. Biological samples were evaluated for ebolavirus nucleic acid, and for antibodies to ebolaviruses. Prevalence of exposure was calculated, and demographic factors evaluated for associations with ebolavirus serostatus.

Results: Samples were collected and tested from 272 people seeking care in the Rutshuru Health Zone in North Kivu Province. All patients were negative for filoviruses by PCR. Intial screening by indirect ELISA found that 30 people were reactive to EBOV-rGP. Results were supported by detection of ebolavirus reactive linear peptides using the Serochip platform. Differential screening of all reactive serum samples against the rGP of all six ebolaviruses and Marburg virus (MARV) showed that 29 people exhibited the strongest reactivity to EBOV and one to Bombali virus (BOMV), and western blotting confirmed results. Titers ranged from 1:100 to 1:12,800. Although both sexes and all ages tested positive for antibodies, women were significantly more likely to be positive and the majority of positives were in February 2018.

Conclusions: We provide the first documented evidence of exposure to Ebola virus in people in eastern DRC. We detected antibodies to EBOV in 10% of febrile patients seeking healthcare prior to the declaration of the 2018-2020 outbreak, suggesting early cases may have been missed or exposure ocurred without associated illness. We also report the first known detection of antibodies to BOMV, previously detected in bats in West and East Africa, and show that human exposure to BOMV has occurred. Our data suggest human exposure to ebolaviruses may be more frequent and geographically widespread.

The health of our planet and humanity is threatened by biodiversity loss, disease and climate crises that are unprecedented in human history, driven by our insatiable consumption and unsustainable production patterns, particularly food systems. The One Health approach is a pathway to synergistically addressing outcomes in term of health and sustainability, but gender issues at the One Health and biodiversity nexus are largely ignored. By examining the roles and responsibilities of Indigenous and Local People, and especially women, in conserving natural resources, and the social costs of living at the Human-Animal-Environment interface under current conservation strategies, we show that women bear a disproportionate health, poverty and climate burden, despite having pivotal roles in conserving biodiversity. To mitigate risks of emerging infectious diseases, food insecurity and climate change impacts, a gender perspective has previously been proposed, but implementation lags behind. Endemic zoonotic diseases, human-wildlife conflict and environmental pollution lack gender-sensitive frameworks. We demonstrate that women can be powerful agents for change at all levels of society, from communities to businesses, and policy-making institutions, but gender inequalities still persist. We develop a framework for mainstreaming a gender-responsive and rights-based One Health approach, in order to heal ourselves and nature. Using a leverage-points perspective, we suggest a change of paradigm, from the pursuit of GDP and over-consumption, to a focus on human well-being and their reconnection with healthy environments, using a One Health understanding of nature and health. We recommend learning from Indigenous People to re-position ourselves within nature and to better conserve biodiversity. We also propose integration of gender equity in leadership, the respect of human rights, women's rights (access to health care, healthy food, land tenure, natural resources, education, and economic opportunities), and the rights of nature, through the implementation of gender-responsive and rights-based One Health Action Plans, at policy-making level, in the private sector and the civil society. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to unveil deep socio-economic inequities in the wealthiest economies and the vital role of nature in supporting our health, we argue to seize this opportunity to build back better and improve resilience and sustainability by using a gender-responsive and rights-based One Health approach.

The holistic approach of One Health, which sees human, animal, plant, and environmental health as a unit, rather than discrete parts, requires not only interdisciplinary cooperation, but standardized methods for communicating and archiving data, enabling participants to easily share what they have learned and allow others to build upon their findings. Ongoing work by NCBI and the GenomeTrakr project illustrates how open data platforms can help meet the needs of federal and state regulators, public health laboratories, departments of agriculture, and universities. Here we describe how microbial pathogen surveillance can be transformed by having an open access database along with Best Practices for contributors to follow. First, we describe the open pathogen surveillance framework, hosted on the NCBI platform. We cover the current community standards for WGS quality, provide an SOP for assessing your own sequence quality and recommend QC thresholds for all submitters to follow. We then provide an overview of NCBI data submission along with step by step details. And finally, we provide curation guidance and an SOP for keeping your public data current within the database. These Best Practices can be models for other open data projects, thereby advancing the One Health goals of Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Re-usable (FAIR) data.