scholarly journals Overview of Bat and Wildlife Coronavirus Surveillance in Africa: A Framework for Global Investigations

Viruses ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 936
Author(s):  
Marike Geldenhuys ◽  
Marinda Mortlock ◽  
Jonathan H. Epstein ◽  
Janusz T. Pawęska ◽  
Jacqueline Weyer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Animal Species ◽  
African Continent ◽  
Research Gaps ◽  
Surveillance Studies ◽  
The Core ◽  
High Species Diversity ◽  
Natural Hosts ◽  
Human Coronaviruses ◽  
Ecosystem Changes ◽  
African Bats

The ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had devastating health and socio-economic impacts. Human activities, especially at the wildlife interphase, are at the core of forces driving the emergence of new viral agents. Global surveillance activities have identified bats as the natural hosts of diverse coronaviruses, with other domestic and wildlife animal species possibly acting as intermediate or spillover hosts. The African continent is confronted by several factors that challenge prevention and response to novel disease emergences, such as high species diversity, inadequate health systems, and drastic social and ecosystem changes. We reviewed published animal coronavirus surveillance studies conducted in Africa, specifically summarizing surveillance approaches, species numbers tested, and findings. Far more surveillance has been initiated among bat populations than other wildlife and domestic animals, with nearly 26,000 bat individuals tested. Though coronaviruses have been identified from approximately 7% of the total bats tested, surveillance among other animals identified coronaviruses in less than 1%. In addition to a large undescribed diversity, sequences related to four of the seven human coronaviruses have been reported from African bats. The review highlights research gaps and the disparity in surveillance efforts between different animal groups (particularly potential spillover hosts) and concludes with proposed strategies for improved future biosurveillance.

scholarly journals Re-Emergence and Spread of Haemorrhagic Septicaemia in Germany: The Wolf as a Vector?

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 1999
Author(s):  
Peter Kutzer ◽  
Claudia A. Szentiks ◽  
Sabine Bock ◽  
Guido Fritsch ◽  
Tibor Magyar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Canis Lupus ◽  
Animal Species ◽  
Virulence Gene ◽  
Capsular Type ◽  
Type B ◽  
Haemorrhagic Septicaemia ◽  
The Core ◽  
Gene Profiles ◽  
First Time

Since 2010, outbreaks of haemorrhagic septicaemia (HS) caused by Pasteurella (P.) multocida capsular type B (PmB) emerged in Germany. In 2017, we noticed a close spatiotemporal relationship between HS outbreak sites and wolf (Canis lupus) territories. Thus, the main objectives of our study were to investigate the molecular epidemiology of German PmB-HS-isolates and to assess the role of wolves as putative vectors of this pathogen. We collected 83 PmB isolates from HS outbreaks that occurred between 2010 and 2019 and sampled 150 wolves, which were found dead in the years 2017 to 2019, revealing another three PmB isolates. A maximum-likelihood-based phylogeny of the core genomes of 65 PmB-HS-isolates and the three PmB-wolf-isolates showed high relatedness. Furthermore, all belonged to capsular:LPS:MLST genotype B:L2:ST122RIRDC and showed highly similar virulence gene profiles, but clustered separately from 35 global ST122RIRDC strains. Our data revealed that German HS outbreaks were caused by a distinct genomic lineage of PmB-ST122 strains, hinting towards an independent, ongoing epidemiologic event. We demonstrated for the first time, that carnivores, i.e., wolves, might harbour PmB as a part of their oropharyngeal microbiota. Furthermore, the results of our study imply that wolves can carry the pathogen over long distances, indicating a major role of that animal species in the ongoing epidemiological event of HS in Germany.

scholarly journals Epidemiology of the invasion of Cryptosporidium parvum in farm and wild animals

2017 ◽  
Vol 73 (7) ◽  
pp. 387-394
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Kaupke ◽  
Artur Rzeżutka
Keyword(s):  
Cryptosporidium Parvum ◽  
Animal Species ◽  
Infected Animal ◽  
Protozoan Parasite ◽  
Human Infection ◽  
Wild Animals ◽  
Livestock Industry ◽  
Surveillance Studies ◽  
Current State ◽  
Wide Range

Cryptosporidium parvum is a zoonotic protozoan parasite occurring in a wide range of hosts. Invasions caused by this parasite have been reported in humans and in many animal species including birds. Despite its worldwide prevalence, infections have usually generated considerable losses in the livestock industry, mostly affecting calves, lambs and goat kids. It has previously been shown that ruminants are a major reservoir of zoonotic Cryptosporidium parvum and contact with an infected animal can lead to human infection. The application of molecular methods for parasitological diagnostics has increased our knowledge on the parasite hosts and its prevalence in humans and animals. They also confirmed their usefulness during epidemiological investigations and in surveillance studies of human and animal cryptosporidiosis. In this review the current state of knowledge concerning the importance of Cryptosporidium parvum invasions in farm and wild animals was presented.

scholarly journals Development of a Decision-Making Framework for Distributed Energy Systems in a German District

Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 552 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucas Schmeling ◽  
Patrik Schönfeldt ◽  
Peter Klement ◽  
Steffen Wehkamp ◽  
Benedikt Hanke ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Stakeholder Participation ◽  
Dynamic Mode ◽  
Distributed Energy ◽  
Research Gaps ◽  
Simulation Tools ◽  
The Core ◽  
Core Elements ◽  
Decision Making Framework

The planning and decision-making for a distributed energy supply concept in complex actor structures like in districts calls for the approach to be highly structured. Here, a strategy with strong use of energetic simulations is developed, the core elements are presented, and research gaps are identified. The exemplary implementation is shown using the case study of a new district on the former Oldenburg airbase in northwestern Germany. The process is divided into four consecutive phases, which are carried out with different stakeholder participation and use of different simulation tools. Based on a common objective, a superstructure of the applicable technologies is developed. Detailed planning is then carried out with the help of a multi-objective optimal sizing algorithm and Monte Carlo based risk assessment. The process ends with the operating phase, which is to guarantee a further optimal and dynamic mode of operation. The main objective of this publication is to present the core elements of the planning processes and decision-making framework based on the case study and to find and identify research gaps that will have to be addressed in the future.

scholarly journals Development of a Decision-Making Framework for Distributed Energy Systems in a German District

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucas Schmeling ◽  
Patrik Schönfeldt ◽  
Peter Klement ◽  
Steffen Wehkamp ◽  
Benedikt Hanke ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Stakeholder Participation ◽  
Dynamic Mode ◽  
Distributed Energy ◽  
Research Gaps ◽  
Simulation Tools ◽  
The Core ◽  
Core Elements ◽  
Decision Making Framework

The planning and decision-making for a distributed energy supply concept in complex actor structures like in districts calls for the approach to be highly structured. Here, a strategy with strong use of energetic simulations is developed, the core elements are presented and research gaps are identified. The exemplary implementation is shown using the case study of a new district on the former Oldenburg airbase in northwestern Germany. The process is divided into four consecutive phases, which are carried out with different stakeholder participation and use of different simulation tools. Based on a common objective, a superstructure of the applicable technologies is developed. Detailed planning is then carried out with the help of a multi-objective optimal sizing algorithm and Monte Carlo based risk assessment. The process ends with the operating phase, which is to guarantee a further optimal and dynamic mode of operation. The main objective of this publication is present the core elements of the planning processes and decision-making framework based on the case study and to find and identify research gaps that will have to be addressed in the future.

scholarly journals RESISTANCE IS FERTILE – OM OVERVÅGNINGENS OLIGOPTISKE BLIK

2010 ◽  
Vol 38 (110) ◽  
pp. 27-40
Author(s):  
Christopher Gad ◽  
Lone Koefoed Hansen
Keyword(s):  
Contemporary Art ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Personal Identification ◽  
Personal Identification Number ◽  
Surveillance Studies ◽  
Surveillance Camera ◽  
The Core ◽  
Big Brother ◽  
Wireless Transmitter ◽  
Specific Effects

RESISTANCE IS FERTILE – ON THE OLIGOPTIC GAZE OF SURVEILLANCEThis article sets media artist Jill Magid’s performative artefact “Surveillance Shoe | Legoland” (2000‑7) in dialogue with Bruno Latour’s notion of oligopticon. Both address and discuss the possibility of conceptualizing surveillance as an always specific, multiple, and situated phenomenon, and thus question dominant metaphors in surveillance discourse, e.g. panopticon and Big Brother.The surveillance of Danish citizens commences at their first breath, as they are assigned a personal identification number immediately after being born. This enables inspections and interventions in many diverse ways by the state and other actors during the citizen’s life. Being merely one example of how surveillance seems to penetrate every aspect of everyday life, it seems fair to suggest that surveillance is, indeed, a ubiquitous phenomenon of modern society. On first glance, Jill Magid’s artefact exemplifies this ubiquitous surveillance situation. The artefact comprises a stiletto, an IR surveillance camera, a battery pack, and a wireless transmitter. The surveillance camera is pointed up the performer’s leg, thus presenting us with an extreme worm’s eye view of the world, focusing on the performer’s lower leg and often on her thigh and crutch as well.From one perspective, Jill Magid’s “Surveillance Shoe” addresses how everything is potentially subject to a surveillant gaze — nothing is too intimate. From another perspective, however, the artefact is an example of how contemporary art investigates the limits and detailed aspects of particular surveillance situations, and of how surveillance technologies co-produce exactly those versions of the reality they gaze upon. In accordance with Bruno Latour’s concept ‘oligopticon’, the artefact points out that the surveillor holds a very precise — yet limited and fragile — view whose only way of seing anything meaningful is by being aggregated to a larger composition.The concept of the oligopticon questions generalized notions of surveillance such as ‘Big Brother’ and the panopticon, and the dystopian angst and utopian thrills, that such notions often evoke. Directly as well as indirectly, those models of surveillance are widely referred to in both surveillance studies and in public discussions of surveillance and as such they have become ‘ideal models’, against which surveillance situations are often compared. In contrast, this paper argues with Latour and Magid that such models are unable to help us grasp the ‘core’ of surveillance precisely because they claim that there is such a core, wheras all there is in fact are particular compositions of surveillance with each their specific effects. The concept of oligopticon offers, on the other hand, a sensitivity towards the possibility of resisting preconceived notions of what surveillance is supposedly about. And even though it can by no means be understood as an alternate general model of surveillance, the concept makes it possible to conduct a richer enquiry into the particular composition of surveillance phenomena.

scholarly journals Lack of Evidence of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Spillover in Free-Living Neotropical Non-Human Primates, Brazil

Viruses ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 1933
Author(s):  
Lívia Sacchetto ◽  
Bárbara Aparecida Chaves ◽  
Edson Rodrigues Costa ◽  
Aline Souza de Menezes Medeiros ◽  
Marcelo Gordo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ◽  
Animal Species ◽  
Close Association ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Free Living ◽  
Serological Tests ◽  
Stochastic Nature ◽  
Human Animal ◽  
Human Coronaviruses ◽  
Wildlife Reservoir

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the agent of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), is responsible for the worst pandemic of the 21st century. Like all human coronaviruses, SARS-CoV-2 originated in a wildlife reservoir, most likely from bats. As SARS-CoV-2 has spread across the globe in humans, it has spilled over to infect a variety of non-human animal species in domestic, farm, and zoo settings. Additionally, a broad range of species, including one neotropical monkey, have proven to be susceptible to experimental infection with SARS-CoV-2. Together, these findings raise the specter of establishment of novel enzootic cycles of SARS-COV-2. To assess the potential exposure of free-living non-human primates to SARS-COV-2, we sampled 60 neotropical monkeys living in proximity to Manaus and São José do Rio Preto, two hotspots for COVID-19 in Brazil. Our molecular and serological tests detected no evidence of SAR-CoV-2 infection among these populations. While this result is reassuring, sustained surveillance efforts of wildlife living in close association with human populations is warranted, given the stochastic nature of spillover events and the enormous implications of SARS-CoV-2 spillover for human health.

scholarly journals The Milk Microbiota of the Spanish Churra Sheep Breed: New Insights into the Complexity of the Milk Microbiome of Dairy Species

Animals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 1463
Author(s):  
Cristina Esteban-Blanco ◽  
Beatriz Gutiérrez-Gil ◽  
Héctor Marina ◽  
Rocío Pelayo ◽  
Aroa Suárez-Vega ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Animal Species ◽  
Massively Parallel Sequencing ◽  
Massively Parallel ◽  
Rrna Gene ◽  
Microbiota Composition ◽  
Complex Issue ◽  
The Core ◽  
Sheep Milk ◽  
The 16S Rrna Gene ◽  
Generation Sequencing

Milk from healthy animals has classically been considered a sterile fluid. With the development of massively parallel sequencing and its application to the study of the microbiome of different body fluids, milk microbiota has been documented in several animal species. In this study, the main objective of this work was to access bacterial profiles of healthy milk samples using the next-generation sequencing of amplicons from the 16S rRNA gene to characterise the milk microbiome of the Churra breed. A total of 212 samples were collected from two Churra dairy farms with a different management system. The core milk microbiota in Churra ewes includes lesser genera (only two taxa: Staphylococcus and Escherichia/Shigella) than studies reported in other dairy species or even in a previous study in Assaf sheep milk. We found that diversity values in the two flocks of Churra breed were lower than the diversity of the milk microbiota in Assaf. The non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) ordination using Bray-Curtis distance separates samples based on their microbiota composition. The information reported here might be used to understand the complex issue of milk microbiota composition.

scholarly journals Leptospirosis: An important re-emerging infection of animals and man

2017 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 76 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. BISIAS (Γ. ΜΠΙΣΙΑΣ) ◽  
S. K. KRITAS (Σ.Κ. ΚΡΗΤΑΣ) ◽  
A. BURRIEL ◽  
B. KONTOS (Β. ΚΟΝΤΟΣ)
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Study ◽  
Animal Species ◽  
Small Ruminants ◽  
Climatic Changes ◽  
Pathogenic Species ◽  
Emerging Infection ◽  
The World ◽  
Leptospira Spp ◽  
Natural Hosts ◽  
Apparently Healthy

Leptospirosis, a re-emerging infection of animals and man, is caused by one of 200 serotypes of Leptospira spp. The genus is currently divided into eight pathogenic species, infecting various animal species and man, either clinically or subclinically. Natural hosts of the microorganism are traditionally, but not exclusively, considered to be rodents. Infected animals excrete Leptospira in the environment, where it may remain for long periods of time, especially if temperatures are about 25°C. The reportedprevalence of infected animals from around the world is between 2% and 46%. In Greece, recent reports show a seropositivity among abortion cases of small ruminants around 25%, while the relevant percentage among apparently healthy food producing animals is between 5.7% and 16.2%. The most prevalent serotypes were Bratislava, Australis and Copenhageni, depending on the animal species. There is a need for more systematic study of the infection in Greece (especially with the possibility of the expected climatic changes to result in a temperature rise).

scholarly journals WNV infection - an emergent vector borne viral infection in Serbia: Current situation

2015 ◽  
Vol 69 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 111-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamas Petrovic ◽  
Diana Lupulovic ◽  
Dusan Petric ◽  
Ana Vasic ◽  
Ivana Hrnjakovic-Cvjetkovic ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Human Population ◽  
Animal Species ◽  
Roe Deer ◽  
Clinical Manifestations ◽  
Public Health Problem ◽  
Wild Birds ◽  
Mosquito Vectors ◽  
Transmission Cycle ◽  
Natural Hosts ◽  
Horse Blood

West Nile virus (WNV) is a neurovirulent mosquito-borne Flavivirus with zoonotic potential. Virus is maintained in nature in an enzootic transmission cycle between avian hosts and mosquito vectors, but occasionally infects other vertebrates. The infection in horses and humans can be asymptomatic or it can have different clinical manifestations ranging from light febrile diseases to fatal meningoencephalitis. Recently, the number, frequency and severity of outbreaks with neurological consequences for birds, humans and horses have increased dramatically throughout central and south Europe, including Serbia, posing a serious veterinary and public health problem. The emergency of WNV infections in Serbia is described through the current epidemiology situation based on recent data on the incidence of WNV infection among virus natural hosts and vectors; sentinel (horses) and other animal species, and in human population. The results of the WNV serology studies conducted on horse blood samples collected in different occasions during the last six years, and the results of the serology studies conducted among other animal species like pigs, wild boars, roe deer and dogs in Serbia are presented and discussed. Also, the results of the first studies on WNV presence in mosquito vectors and in wild birds as virus natural hosts in Serbia are presented and analyzed. In addition, the data on the WNV serology studies conducted in human population in Serbia in the last few years, and the existing data of WNV outbreaks in 2012 and 2013 are included. Regarding the existing knowledge on WNV epidemiology situation, the crucial role of veterinary service in early detection of WNV presence and ongoing national program of WNV surveillance in sentinel animals, mosquitoes and wild birds are discussed.

scholarly journals Tiny Fungi in the Soil Are Like Medicine for Nature

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lena Neuenkamp ◽  
Nadia I. Maaroufi
Keyword(s):  
Mycorrhizal Fungi ◽  
Animal Species ◽  
Plant Roots ◽  
Ecosystem Recovery ◽  
Speed Up ◽  
Ecosystem Changes

Like humans, plant and animal species have a specific type of place, called an ecosystem, where they prefer to live. If the ecosystem changes too much, some species will disappear, much the same way people avoid living in the desert because it is too hot and dry. Humans modify many ecosystems, sometimes so severely that almost no plants or animals can live there anymore. To help damaged ecosystems recover, we often start by planting trees or other plants. Biologists found that mycorrhizal fungi, tiny fungi living in the soil and inside plant roots, could speed up ecosystem recovery by making plants grow back faster and stronger. In this article, we describe how the recovery of ecosystems can be enhanced by mycorrhizal fungi, and when mycorrhizal fungi are especially helpful.

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