The Bacillus anthracis exosporium nap is the outermost portion of spore that interacts with the environment and host systems. Changes to this layer have the potential to impact wide-ranging physiological and immunological processes. The unique sugar, anthrose, normally coats the exosporium nap at its most distal points.
A UF researcher with expertise in infectious bacteria offers commentary and perspective on extensively drug-resistant Shigella infections following a recent CDC warning.
Graduate student Amanda Ojeda won best research poster in the EPI Research Day 2023 trainee research poster competition. Her research focused on identifying the prevalence and the composition of Campylobacter species in infants in a rural area of eastern Ethiopia during their first year of life and potential reservoirs. The project was a team collaboration between Ojeda and collaborators at the University of Florida, Haramaya University, Ohio State University, Washington University in St. Louis and Massey University in New Zealand.
Bacterial spot caused by spp. is a significant disease that challenges pepper growers worldwide and is particularly severe in a hot and humid environment. Understanding the pathogen’s population biology is critical for sustainable disease management. The goal of this study was to characterize the species, race, and bactericide sensitivity of bacterial spot-associated Xanthomonas collected from pepper in Florida.
For most of the 20th century, Xanthomonas euvesicatoria was the only known bacterium associated with bacterial spot of tomato in Florida. X. perforans quickly replaced X. euvesicatoria, mainly because of production of three bacteriocins (BCNs) against X. euvesicatoria; however, X. perforans outcompeted X. euvesicatoria even when the three known BCNs were deleted. Surprisingly, we observed antimicrobial activity against X. euvesicatoria in the BCN triple mutant when the triple mutant was grown in Petri plates containing multiple spots but not in Petri plates containing only one spot.
Bloodstream infections (BSIs) are associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Specifically, Gram-negative BSIs might be associated with higher early mortality compared to BSIs caused by Gram-positive bacteria. These Gram-negative organisms may lead to serious therapeutic problems because of the increased incidence of multidrug resistance.
Pretomanid is a nitroimidazole antimicrobial active against drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis and approved in combination with bedaquiline and linezolid (BPaL) to treat multidrug-resistant (MDR) pulmonary tuberculosis (TB). However, the penetration of these antibiotics into the central nervous system (CNS), and the efficacy of the BPaL regimen for TB meningitis, are not well established.
Toxigenic Vibrio cholerae O1 serotype Ogawa was introduced involuntarily into Haiti in October 2010, and virtually all of the clinical strains isolated during the first 5 years of the epidemic were Ogawa. Inaba strains were identified intermittently prior to 2015, with diverse mutations resulting in a common phenotype. In 2015, the percentage of clinical infections due to the Inaba serotype began to rapidly increase, with Inaba supplanting Ogawa as the dominant serotype during the subsequent 4 years.
Anthrax is a serious zoonosis caused by Bacillus anthracis, which primarily affects wild herbivorous animals with spillover into humans. The disease occurs nearly worldwide but is poorly reported in Southeast Asian countries. In Vietnam, anthrax is underreported, and little is known about its temporal and spatial distributions.
Using data collected from previous (n = 86) and prospective (n = 132) anthrax outbreaks, we enhanced prior ecological niche models (ENM) and added kernel density estimation (KDE) approaches to identify anthrax hotspots in Kenya. Local indicators of spatial autocorrelation (LISA) identified clusters of administrative wards with a relatively high or low anthrax reporting rate to determine areas of greatest outbreak intensity. Subsequently, we modeled the impact of vaccinating livestock in the identified hotspots as a national control measure.
