An integrated eco-evolutionary framework to predict population-level responses of climate-sensitive pathogens.

It is critical to gain insight into how climate change impacts evolutionary responses within climate-sensitive pathogen populations, such as increased resilience, opportunistic responses and the emergence of dominant variants from highly variable genomic backgrounds and subsequent global dispersal. This review proposes a framework to support such analysis, by combining genomic evolutionary analysis with climate time-series data in a novel spatiotemporal dataframe for use within machine learning applications, to understand past and future evolutionary pathogen responses to climate change. Recommendations are presented to increase the feasibility of interdisciplinary applications, including the importance of robust spatiotemporal metadata accompanying genome submission to databases. Such workflows will inform accessible public health tools and early-warning systems, to aid decision-making and mitigate future human health threats.

Perceptions and Experiences of Intrusive Behavior and Stalking: Comparing LGBTIQ and Heterosexual Groups.

The present research employed a mixed-methods approach and quasi-experimental design to examine perceptions and experiences of intrusive behavior (comprising 47 individual intrusive activities) within individuals identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, or queer (LGBTIQ) with a matched (in terms of age, sex, and income) sample of individuals identifying as heterosexual ( N = 214). Despite only minor differences between the LGBTIQ and heterosexual groups concerning perceptions of the acceptability of intrusive behavior, the LGBTIQ group was more likely to report experiencing a range of individual intrusive activities and to report experiencing stalking victimization (self-reported rates of 35.5% vs. 15.0%). Participant sex and personal experience of being stalked were minimally associated with perceptions of the acceptability of intrusive behavior. Sexual orientation significantly predicted whether a person had experienced stalking victimization, whereas participant sex did not. The qualitative analysis revealed that the two groups shared some experiences of intrusive behavior, whereas others represented a unique subset of intrusions that related to sexual orientation.

Evaluation of antimicrobial susceptibility patterns in Campylobacter spp isolated from dairy cattle and farms managed organically and conventionally in the midwestern and northeastern United States.

OBJECTIVE: To describe antimicrobial susceptibility patterns in Campylobacter spp isolated from dairy cattle and farms managed organically and conventionally in the midwestern and northeastern United States. DESIGN: Longitudinal study. SAMPLE POPULATION: 128 farms. PROCEDURE: Samples and data were collected every 2 months from August 2000 to October 2001. Fecal samples were collected from calves and cows. Milk samples were obtained from the bulk tank and milk line filters. Environmental samples were obtained from a water source, feed bunks of lactating cows, and cattle housing areas. Campylobacter identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing were performed at a central laboratory by use of microbroth dilution with 2 customized antimicrobial susceptibility panels. RESULTS: 460 and 1,570 Campylobacter isolates were obtained from organic and conventional dairy farms, respectively. Most isolates from both farm types were susceptible to most antimicrobial agents tested, and antimicrobial susceptibility of conventional dairy isolates was decreased, compared with organic dairy isolates. Low proportions of isolates resistant to ampicillin (< 10%) and moderate proportions resistant (30% to 60%) to kanamycin, sulfamethoxazole, and tetracycline were observed on both farm types. The proportion of isolates resistant to tetracycline was higher for conventional than organic farms. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Campylobacter isolates from dairy cattle and farms managed organically and conventionally had similar patterns of antimicrobial resistance; the proportion of resistant isolates was higher for conventional than organic farms.

Genetic mechanisms contributing to reduced tetracycline susceptibility of Campylobacter isolated from organic and conventional dairy farms in the midwestern and northeastern United States.

Campylobacter is one of the most common causes of gastroenteritis and can be acquired through contact with farm animals or the consumption of raw milk. Because of concerns over the role of food-producing animals in the dissemination of antimicrobial resistance to humans, we evaluated the prevalence of antimicrobial resistance in Campylobacter isolates from dairy farms and the genetic mechanism conferring the observed resistance. Evaluation of antimicrobial resistance was completed on 912 isolates from conventional and 304 isolates from organic dairy farms to eight drugs (azithromycin, chloramphenicol, ciprofloxacin, clindamycin, erythromycin, gentamicin, nalidixic acid, and tetracycline) with microbroth dilution. Resistance to seven of eight drugs was very low and did not differ by farm type. However, tetracycline resistance was common in Campylobacter isolated from both organic and conventional dairy farms, with 48 and 58% of isolates affected, respectively. By multiplex PCR, we determined that tetracycline resistance was highly associated with the carriage of tetO in Campylobacter isolates (X2 = 124, P < 0.01, kappa = 0.86).

Comparison of automated microbroth dilution and agar dilution for antimicrobial susceptibility of Campylobacter jejuni isolated from dairy sources.

OBJECTIVES: To compare the agreement between microbroth dilution and agar dilution for antimicrobial susceptibility testing of Campylobacter jejuni. METHODS: Utilizing commercially prepared antimicrobial panels, microbroth dilution was compared with agar dilution for determining antimicrobial susceptibility in C. jejuni isolates. To assess the performance of both techniques for ampicillin, 190 C. jejuni isolates from dairy cattle were utilized. A group of 172 C. jejuni isolates from dairy sources were used to compare the susceptibility to ciprofloxacin, erythromycin, nalidixic acid and tetracycline. RESULTS: Our results indicate that microbroth dilution and agar dilution agree within +/-1 log2 dilution for 86.7% of the isolates tested. Ciprofloxacin had the highest level of agreement for isolates tested by both techniques, resulting in a kappa of 0.886 and 97.1% agreement +/-1 log2 dilution. The least agreement was observed in determining the susceptibility of isolates to ampicillin and erythromycin (82.1 and 79.7% agreement +/-1 log2 dilution). However, kappa statistics were considered to have good agreement for these antimicrobials. There were no significant differences in the summary statistics for any of the five antimicrobials evaluated for the isolates analysed by the percentage of resistant isolates, MIC50, MIC75 or MIC90 beyond +/-1 log2 dilution. There was no association in the classification of resistance by the testing methods employed. We also demonstrated that the quality control strain of C. jejuni ATCC 33650 performed in a consistent manner for both agar dilution and microbroth dilution. CONCLUSIONS: Microbroth dilution may be an acceptable alternative to agar dilution for determining susceptibility of C. jejuni in research or surveillance where flow of samples, labour efficiency and cost may restrict the use of agar dilution.

Prevalence of Salmonella spp on conventional and organic dairy farms.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the occurrence of fecal shedding, persistence of shedding over time, and serogroup classification of Salmonella spp on a large number of dairy farms of various sizes. DESIGN: Longitudinal study. SAMPLE POPULATION: 22,417 fecal samples from cattle and 4,570 samples from the farm environment on 110 organic and conventional dairy farms in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and NewYork. PROCEDURE: 5 visits were made to each farm at 2-month intervals from August 2000 to October 2001. Fecal samples from healthy cows, calves, and other targeted cattle groups and samples from bulk tank milk, milk line filters, water, feed sources, and pen floors were collected at each visit. Bacterial culture was performed at 1 laboratory. RESULTS: Salmonella spp were isolated from 4.8% of fecal samples and 5.9% of environmental samples; 92.7% of farms had at least 1 Salmonella-positive sample. The 75th percentile for median within-herd prevalence of Salmonella spp in cattle for 5 sampling visits to a given farm was 2.0% and for maximum within-herd prevalence of Salmonella spp was 13.6%. Farms with a median within-herd prevalence of Salmonella spp of > or = 2.0% accounted for 76.3% of Salmonella-positive samples. There was no significant difference in the prevalence of Salmonella spp between conventional and organic farms. Seasonal differences in Salmonella shedding were observed. More farms had at least 1 serogroup B isolate than any other serogroup, whereas serogroup E1 was the most common among all Salmonella-positive samples. More than 1 serogroup was isolated on 76.4% of Salmonella-positive farms. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Salmonella spp were isolated from > 90% of dairy farms; however, 25% of farms accounted for > 75% of Salmonella-positive samples. This information is critical for the direction of intervention strategies to decrease the prevalence of Salmonella spp on dairy farms.