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Avian colibacillosis is caused by a group of pathogens designated avian pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC). Despite being known for over a century, avian colibacillosis remains one of the major endemic diseases afflicting the poultry... more
Avian colibacillosis is caused by a group of pathogens designated avian pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC). Despite being known for over a century, avian colibacillosis remains one of the major endemic diseases afflicting the poultry industry worldwide. Autologous bacterins provide limited serotype-specific protection, yet multiple serogroups are associated with disease, especially O1, O2 and O78 among many others. Experimental infection models have facilitated the identification of some key APEC virulence genes and have allowed testing of vaccine candidates. Well-recognized virulence factors include Type 1 (F1) and P (Pap/Prs) fimbriae for colonization, IbeA for invasion, iron acquisition systems, TraT and Iss for serum survival, K and O antigens for anti-phagocytic activity, and a temperature-sensitive haemagglutinin of imprecise function. Intriguingly, these factors do not occur universally among APEC, suggesting the presence of multiple alternative mechanisms mediating pathogenicity. The recent availability of the first complete APEC genome sequence can be expected to accelerate the identification of bacterial genes expressed during infection and required for virulence. High-throughput molecular approaches like signature-tagged transposon mutagenesis have already proved invaluable in revealing portfolios of genes expressed by pathogenic bacteria during infection, and this has enabled identification of APEC O2 factors required for septicaemia in the chicken model. Complimentary approaches, such as in vivo-induced antigen technology, exist to define the activities of APEC in vivo. In recent years, reverse vaccinology and immuno-proteomic approaches have also enabled identification of novel vaccine candidates in other bacterial pathogens. Collectively, such information provides the basis for the development or improvement of strategies to control APEC infections in the food-producing avian species.
Research Interests: Microbiology, Gene expression, Virulence, Avian Pathology, Escherichia coli, and 12 moreAnimals, Iron, Experimental Infection, POULTRY DISEASES, Chickens, Very high throughput, Virulence factor, Veterinary Sciences, Genome sequence, Temperature Sensitive Polymer, Pathogenic Bacteria, and Escherichia Coli Infections
Nontyphoidal salmonellosis continues to pose a global threat to human health, primarily by causing food-borne illnesses, and food-producing animals are the principal reservoirs of many pathogenic serovars. To identify key control points... more
Nontyphoidal salmonellosis continues to pose a global threat to human health, primarily by causing food-borne illnesses, and food-producing animals are the principal reservoirs of many pathogenic serovars. To identify key control points and generate information that may enable future estimation of the transmission routes between the environment, animals, and humans, we examined data on Salmonella isolates in South Africa. Samples were obtained from livestock and poultry on farms, meat at abattoirs, raw materials at feed mills, animal feed, and environmental sources (eg, poultry houses, abattoirs, feed mills, water) from 2012 to 2014 in compliance with each establishment's protocols conforming to International Organization for Standardization (ISO) (ISO/TS 17728, ISO 18593:2004 and ISO 17604:2003) standards. Isolation and serotyping of Salmonella were performed according to the scope of accreditation of the respective laboratories conforming to ISO/IEC 17025:2005 standard techniques. Salmonella was isolated from 9031 of 180 298 (5.0%) samples, and these isolates were distributed among 188 different serovars. Salmonella Enteritidis was the most frequent isolate, with 1944 of 180 298 (21.5%) originating from poultry on farms, poultry meat, and poultry houses, followed by Salmonella Havana, with 677 of 180 298 (7.5%), mostly from environmental samples. Serovars that are uncommonly associated with human disease (Salmonella Idikan, Salmonella Salford, and Salmonella Brancaster) were isolated at higher frequencies than Salmonella Typhimurium, a common cause of human illness. Environmental samples accounted for 3869 of 9031 (42.8%) samples positive for Salmonella. We describe the frequent isolation of Salmonella of a wide variety of serovars, from an array of animal feeds, food animals, and food animal environment. As prevention of human salmonellosis requires the effective control of Salmonella in food animals, these data can be used to facilitate Salmonella control in food animals and thereby prevent human infections.
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Avian pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC) exert substantial economic costs on poultry producers worldwide. Vaccination is an attractive method of control, but the immunological basis of protection is poorly understood. Here, we examine the... more
Avian pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC) exert substantial economic costs on poultry producers worldwide. Vaccination is an attractive method of control, but the immunological basis of protection is poorly understood. Here, we examine the effect of intramuscular injection of cyclophosphamide or saline on homologous protection induced by licensed inactivated or live-attenuated APEC O78 vaccines in chickens. In saline-treated birds, both vaccines induced significant APEC-specific IgY and protection against homologous challenge, as evidenced by enumeration of tissue-associated bacteria and analysis of pathology. In cyclophosphamide-treated birds, B cells were severely depleted whereas percentages of circulating CD4- and CD8-positive T cells were normal as detected by flow cytometry. Further, such birds did not produce APEC-specific IgY and were as susceptible to challenge as age-matched unvaccinated controls. The data indicate that homologous protection conferred by licensed APEC vacci...
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Research Interests: Microbiology, Veterinary Microbiology, Molecular Epidemiology, PCR, Developing Country, and 15 moreAnimals, Bacteria, Polymerase Chain Reaction, Species identification, multiplex PCR, Phenotype, Spectrum, Type System, Genotype, Veterinary Sciences, Diagnostic Test, Host Pathogen Interactions, Pasteurella Multocida, Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay, and Diagnostic Tests
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Enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) comprise an important group of zoonotic enteric pathogens. In humans, some EHEC infections result in bloody or non- bloody diarrhoea, which may be complicated by haem- orrhagic colitis and severe... more
Enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) comprise an important group of zoonotic enteric pathogens. In humans, some EHEC infections result in bloody or non- bloody diarrhoea, which may be complicated by haem- orrhagic colitis and severe renal and neurological sequelae, including haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS). Ruminants are an important reservoir of EHEC and human infections are frequently associated with direct or indirect
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Atrophic rhinitis in pigs is rarely reported in Southern Africa. To determine the relationship between Pasteurella multocida clones from clinical cases of atrophic rhinitis, twenty-one strains were characterised by selected phenotypic and... more
Atrophic rhinitis in pigs is rarely reported in Southern Africa. To determine the relationship between Pasteurella multocida clones from clinical cases of atrophic rhinitis, twenty-one strains were characterised by selected phenotypic and genotypic methods. Biochemical analysis classified 18 strains as P. multocida subspecies multocida, whilst the remainder were grouped into separate unassigned biotypes. Capsular groups A (16/21) and D (l/21) were found among the isolates by PCR. Four ribotype patterns were obtained following HpaII ribotyping, whilst random amplification of polymorphic DNA (RAPD) revealed three main clusters. However, subclusters were also noted for each RAPD cluster. Our results indicate that RAPD offers a better discrimination of strains than ribotyping and that none of the phenotypic characters were directly related to the genotypic clusters.
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Research Interests: Microbiology, Multidisciplinary, Veterinary, Virulence, Protein Kinases, and 6 moreMutation, Animals, Male, Bacteria, Phenotype, and Cattle
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Research Interests: Genetics, Veterinary, Molecular Mechanics, Biological Sciences, Infection and immunity, and 14 moreSpleen, Liver, Intestinal Mucosa, Animals, Infection, Bacteria, Cattle, Major histocompatibility complex, Host Specificity, Bacterial translocation, Virulence Factors, Blood Vessel, Protein Transport, and Lymph nodes
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Research Interests: Microbiology, Veterinary, In Situ Hybridization, Biological Sciences, Infection and immunity, and 13 moreIdentification, Mice, Animals, Bacteria, Polymerase Chain Reaction, Cattle, Intestines, Digestive System, POULTRY DISEASES, Host Specificity, Amino Acid Sequence, Base Sequence, and Molecular Sequence Data
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Avian colibacillosis is caused by a group of pathogens designated avian pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC). Despite being known for over a century, avian colibacillosis remains one of the major endemic diseases afflicting the poultry... more
Avian colibacillosis is caused by a group of pathogens designated avian pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC). Despite being known for over a century, avian colibacillosis remains one of the major endemic diseases afflicting the poultry industry worldwide. Autologous bacterins provide limited serotype-specific protection, yet multiple serogroups are associated with disease, especially O1, O2 and O78 among many others. Experimental infection models have facilitated the identification of some key APEC virulence genes and have allowed testing of vaccine candidates. Well-recognized virulence factors include Type 1 (F1) and P (Pap/Prs) fimbriae for colonization, IbeA for invasion, iron acquisition systems, TraT and Iss for serum survival, K and O antigens for anti-phagocytic activity, and a temperature-sensitive haemagglutinin of imprecise function. Intriguingly, these factors do not occur universally among APEC, suggesting the presence of multiple alternative mechanisms mediating pathogenicity. The recent availability of the first complete APEC genome sequence can be expected to accelerate the identification of bacterial genes expressed during infection and required for virulence. High-throughput molecular approaches like signature-tagged transposon mutagenesis have already proved invaluable in revealing portfolios of genes expressed by pathogenic bacteria during infection, and this has enabled identification of APEC O2 factors required for septicaemia in the chicken model. Complimentary approaches, such as in vivo-induced antigen technology, exist to define the activities of APEC in vivo. In recent years, reverse vaccinology and immuno-proteomic approaches have also enabled identification of novel vaccine candidates in other bacterial pathogens. Collectively, such information provides the basis for the development or improvement of strategies to control APEC infections in the food-producing avian species.
Research Interests: Microbiology, Gene expression, Virulence, Avian Pathology, Escherichia coli, and 12 moreAnimals, Iron, Experimental Infection, POULTRY DISEASES, Chickens, Very high throughput, Virulence factor, Veterinary Sciences, Genome sequence, Temperature Sensitive Polymer, Pathogenic Bacteria, and Escherichia Coli Infections
Forty-five strains mainly isolated from chickens in Zimbabwe and Denmark, two pig and three rat isolates all identified as Pasteurella gallinarum by conventional phenotypic tests were characterized by ribotyping, and selected strains were... more
Forty-five strains mainly isolated from chickens in Zimbabwe and Denmark, two pig and three rat isolates all identified as Pasteurella gallinarum by conventional phenotypic tests were characterized by ribotyping, and selected strains were subsequently analysed by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. High genotypic diversity was observed, the number of ribotypes totalling 24. A major group of 47 isolates including the type strain of P. gallinarum clustered at 56% similarity and included 21 ribotypes. Ribotyping showed that some genotypes of P. gallinarum seem to be globally distributed. The three isolates from rodents did not share even a single common ribotype fragment with strains from birds and the pig isolates. Two avian isolates from Denmark and Zimbabwe and the pig strain showed from 97.6 to 99.8% 16S rRNA sequence similarity with the type strain of P. gallinarum and with type strains of Pasteurella volantium and Pasteurella avium. Two rat strains showed 98.6% 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity with each other, but were only related with P. gallinarum at 93% similarity. These isolates showed the highest similarity with [Actinobacillus] muris at 96.4 to 95.0% similarity. We suggest that conventional identification of P. gallinarum consequently should consider the source of isolation to obtain a correct diagnosis, and that isolation from animals other than fowl should be confirmed by genotypic analysis such as 16S rRNA gene sequence comparison.
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We report isolation of a strain of fermentative coryneform bacteria from an outbreak of polyarthritis in chickens. This strain could not be assigned to any recognized bacterial taxon because its peculiar phenotype is not yet reported. The... more
We report isolation of a strain of fermentative coryneform bacteria from an outbreak of polyarthritis in chickens. This strain could not be assigned to any recognized bacterial taxon because its peculiar phenotype is not yet reported. The strain possessed phenotypic characteristics and fatty acid profile similar to Erysipelothrix but, on the other hand, exhibited temperature-dependent motility like Listeria. We found no evidence of either Mycoplasma synoviae or Chlamydia infection. Details of the phenotype and fatty acid profile of the isolate and measures undertaken to contain the outbreak have been described.