Search

Pigs and humans have shared influenza A viruses ( IAV) since at least 1918, and many interspecies transmission events have been documented since that time. However, despite this interplay, relatively little is known regarding IAV circulating in swine around the world compared with the avian and human knowledge base. This gap in knowledge impedes our understanding of how viruses adapted to swine or man impacts the ecology and evolution of IAV as a whole and the true impact of swine IAV on human health. The pandemic H1N1 that emerged in 2009 underscored the need for greater surveillance and sharing of data on IAV in swine. In this paper, we review the current state of IAV in swine around the world, highlight the collaboration between international organizations and a network of laboratories engaged in human and animal IAV surveillance and research, and emphasize the need to increase information in high-priority regions. The need for global integration and rapid sharing of data and resources to fight IAV in swine and other animal species is apparent, but this effort requires grassroots support from governments, practicing veterinarians and the swine industry and, ultimately, requires significant increases in funding and infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Phenomics, an interdisciplinary field that investigates the relationships between genomics and environmental factors, has significantly advanced plant breeding by offering comprehensive insights into plant traits from molecular to physiological levels. This study examines the global evolution, geographic distribution, collaborative efforts, and primary research hubs in plant phenomics from 2000 to 2021, using data derived from patents and scientific publications., Methods: The study utilized data from the EspaceNet and Lens databases for patents, and Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus for scientific publications. The final datasets included 651 relevant patents and 7173 peer-reviewed articles. Data were geocoded to assign country-level geographical coordinates and underwent multiple processing and cleaning steps using Python, Excel, R, and ArcGIS. Social network analysis (SNA) was conducted to assess collaboration patterns using Pajek and UCINET., Results: Research activities in plant phenomics have increased significantly, with China emerging as a major player, filing nearly 70% of patents from 2010 to 2021. The U.S. and EU remain significant contributors, accounting for over half of the research output. The study identified around 50 global research hubs, mainly in the U.S. (36%), Western Europe (34%), and China (16%). Collaboration networks have become more complex and interdisciplinary, reflecting a strategic approach to solving research challenges., Discussion: The findings underscore the importance of global collaboration and technological advancement in plant phenomics. China's rise in patent filings highlights its growing influence, while the ongoing contributions from the U.S. and EU demonstrate their continued leadership. The development of complex collaborative networks emphasizes the scientific community's adaptive strategies to address multifaceted research issues. These insights are crucial for researchers, policymakers, and industry stakeholders aiming to innovate in agricultural practices and improve crop varieties., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Awada, Phillips and Bodan.)

Little research is available on acquired immunity to rabies in dogs and cats from Central Africa, particularly regarding the legal movements of pets. Movement of domestic animals from rabies-endemic countries like Cameroon to rabies free areas poses one of the main risks for rabies introduction into rabies-free areas. Thus, the aim of this study was to assess the effect of various risk factors on rabies vaccine efficacy in Cameroonian. Since the dependent variable, rabies neutralizing titres, were censored from above (right-censoring), Generalized Additive Model for Location, Scale and Shape (GAMLSS) was used in the analysis. Overall, 85.7% of dogs and 100% of cats had titres greater than or equal to 0.5 IU/mL, which is considered protective. Additionally, compared to cats, the value of the rabies-neutralizing serum titres in dogs was on average smaller by 2.3 IU/mL. For each additional year of age, the value of the rabies-neutralizing serum titre, on average, increased by approximately 0.14 IU/mL. Finally, for each 30 additional days between the date of the last rabies vaccination and the date of the sampling, the value the rabies neutralizing titre, on average, decreased by approximately 0.10 IU/mL, given the species and age at sampling were equivalent. These results are useful for assessing risk and improving surveillance to prevent the introduction of rabies into a country via the international movement of animals., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those personal of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE/WOAH)., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

This paper examines the role of the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) in the global surveillance and management of pathogens. Since the creation of WOAH, one of its missions has been to ensure transparency of the global animal health situation. WOAH established a Working Group on Wildlife in 1994 to inform and advise WOAH Members, leadership, and technical teams on issues relating to wildlife health. In 2020 it conducted a consultation with its Members before developing a Wildlife Health Framework to improve global health and wildlife conservation. WOAH Members report diseases in wildlife, but detections are dependent on the surveillance systems in place. As an example of data collected in the most recent years (2019-2023), 154 countries have reported 68,862,973 cases, through alert messages and weekly updates, for 84 diseases. One-hundred and fifty countries have reported 68,672,115 cases in domestic animals and 95 countries have reported 190,858 cases in wild animals. These figures illustrate the performance of the organization in collecting data on wildlife, and provide an indication of the difference in completeness of data collected in domestic animals and wildlife. There are several challenges to wildlife disease surveillance and real figures remain unknown; they depend on the existence, quality and sensitivity of national surveillance. A WOAH-led One Health approach with cross-sectoral collaboration is needed to improve surveillance sensitivity, address the challenges and help safeguard wildlife population health and biodiversity conservation., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Thompson, Cayol, Awada, Muset, Shetty, Wang and Tizzani.)

The World Animal Health Information System (WAHIS) collects and publishes a wealth of information gathered by individual countries' Veterinary Services, including detailed country-specific information on outbreaks of diseases listed by the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH, founded as OIE), including emerging diseases, in domestic animals and wildlife, and non-listed diseases in wildlife. The data set is one of the most comprehensive in the world, with 182 Members obliged to report this information to WOAH in a timely manner. As such, the data provide invaluable input for Veterinary Services, animal health researchers and stakeholders to gain insight into risk from infectious diseases, for example through the development of predictive models and risk assessments to address the risk from trade of animal products, globalisation, or movement of wildlife or vectors across country borders. This paper reviews previous analyses that have been conducted using WAHIS data and outlines ways in which these data can be used for preparedness and risk assessment.

T cells use their T-cell receptors (TCRs) to discriminate between lower-affinity self and higher-affinity foreign peptide major-histocompatibility-complexes (pMHCs) based on the TCR/pMHC off-rate. It is now appreciated that T cells generate mechanical forces during this process but how force impacts the TCR/pMHC off-rate remains debated. Here, we measured the effect of mechanical force on the off-rate of multiple TCR/pMHC interactions. Unexpectedly, we found that lower-affinity TCR/pMHCs with faster solution off-rates were more resistant to mechanical force (weak slip or catch bonds) than higher-affinity interactions (strong slip bonds). This was confirmed by molecular dynamics simulations. Consistent with these findings, we show that the best-characterized catch bond, involving the OT-I TCR, has a low affinity and an exceptionally fast solution off-rate. Our findings imply that reducing forces on the TCR/pMHC interaction improves antigen discrimination, and we suggest a role for the adhesion receptors CD2 and LFA-1 in force-shielding the TCR/pMHC interaction., (© 2022 The Authors. Published under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license.)

The World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) has recently developed a Wildlife Health Framework to respond to the need of members to manage the risk from emerging diseases at the animal-human-ecosystem interface. One of its objectives is to improve surveillance systems, early detection and notification of wildlife diseases. Members share information on disease occurrence by reporting through the OIE World Animal Health Information System (OIE-WAHIS-formerly known as 'WAHIS'). To evaluate the capacity of a surveillance system to detect disease events, it is important to quantify the gap between all known events and those officially notified to the OIE. This study used capture-recapture analysis to estimate the sensitivity of the OIE-WAHIS system for a OIE-listed wildlife disease by comparing information from publicly available sources to identify undetected events. This article presents a case study of the occurrence of tularemia in lagomorphs among selected North American and European countries during the period 2014-2019. First, an analysis using three data sources (OIE-WAHIS, ProMED, WHO-EIOS [Epidemic Intelligence from Open Sources]) was conducted. Subsequent analysis then explored the model integrating information from a fourth source (scientific literature collected in PubMed). Two models were built to evaluate both the sensitivity of the OIE-WAHIS using media reports (ProMED and WHO-EIOS), which is likely to represent current closer to real-time events, and published scientific data, which is more useful for retrospective analysis. Using the three-source approach, the predicted number of tularemia events was 93 (95% CI: 75-114), with an OIE-WAHIS sensitivity of 90%. In the four-source approach, the number of predicted events increased to 120 (95% CI: 99-143), dropping the sensitivity of the OIE-WAHIS to 70%. The results indicate a good sensitivity of the OIE-WAHIS system using the three-source approach, but lower sensitivity when including information from the scientific literature. Further analysis should be undertaken to identify diseases and regions for which international reporting presents a low sensitivity. This will enable evaluation and prioritization of underreported OIE-listed wildlife diseases and identify areas of focus as part of the Wildlife Health Framework. This study also highlights the need for stronger collaborations between academia and National Veterinary Services to enhance surveillance systems for notifiable diseases., (© 2022 The Authors. Zoonoses and Public Health published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

The global crop sector is estimated to contribute about 10.4% of global GHGs annually. The Canadian crop sector is assessed as adding about 6.5% to total national emissions. These estimates over report the impact of farming as they ignore the complex interaction of cropping with the environment and the role land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) play in sequestering carbon. This study quantifies the contribution of land use to GHG emissions and removals in the Canadian Prairies crop sector between 1985 and 2016. The modeling effort explores how different farming practices (i.e., conventional tillage (CT), minimum tillage (MT), zero tillage (ZT), summerfallow, crop rotations, and residue retention) and input usage rates (i.e., fertilizer and fuel) affect GHG emissions in different soil climate zones and provinces in the Prairies region. The adoption of sustainable practices led to an 80% decline in GHG emissions in the crop sector between 1985 and 2016. Since 2005, the baseline for Canada's Paris commitment, sectoral emissions dropped 53%, more than is required to meet the 2030 target. Most promising, the crop sector was a net GHG sink between 2013 and 2016 in Alberta and between 2006 and 2016 in Saskatchewan. As positive as these developments have been, more can be done by directing research to identify options for reducing GHGs in Manitoba (which made only minimal improvements as farmers there faced conditions requiring continuous use of conventional tillage practices), to explore better nitrogen management (a major continuing source of GHG from cropping) and by searching for low carbon transport options., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Rabies is listed as one of the World Health Organisation's (WHO) Neglected Tropical Diseases Worldwide, with a significant impact in South America. This paper explores the dynamics of rabies cases in humans, pets (dogs and cats), livestock and wildlife (bats in particular) in South America during the period 2009-2018. The data used in this study were derived from the two main databases for rabies in South America: the OIE-WAHIS from the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and PANAFTOSA's Regional Information System for the Epidemiological Surveillance of Rabies (SIRVERA). Being a neglected disease with possible underreporting in some areas, the reported rabies cases may not always represent the real disease burden. The analysis focuses on the evolution of the number of cases in time and their spatial distribution, as well as on the main source of infections in humans, determined by laboratory assays of the antigenic variant or through epidemiological investigations. Additionally, Generalised Linear Mixed Models (GLMM) were used to evaluate the risk factors associated with the occurrence of human cases. Our results show that the highest impact of the disease in terms of number of cases was reported on livestock, while the overall number of cases (in animals and humans) progressively decreased along the study period. The spatial distribution of rabies in livestock showed two main clusters in the north-western (mainly Colombia) and in the south-eastern part of the affected area (Brazil), and a third smaller cluster in Peru. A cluster in dogs was observed in Bolivia. Out of the 192 human cases reported during the study period, 70% of them were transmitted by bats. The number of human cases reported during the study period were significantly associated with the number of rabies cases reported in livestock, pets and wildlife. Despite the overall decreasing case report rate, the disease still represents a major animal and public health concern in South America, and new strategies for compiling systematic information, networking and education are needed, as well as the education and training of veterinary staff.

This paper describes the global distribution and temporal evolution of bovine brucellosis due to Brucella abortus during a 19-year period (1996-2014) using the information officially reported to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) by veterinary services of 156 countries. Variables that can influence the health status of bovine brucellosis (i.e., year, per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP), continent and bovine population) were also analysed. Countries were classified into three categories of health situations: ENZOOTIC: countries infected, which may have been free of brucellosis but for periods of fewer than 3 years; NON-ENZOOTIC: countries where the disease was present but that had at least a 3-year period without the disease; and FREE: countries where the disease remained absent during the whole period. The countries free from bovine brucellosis, or in the process of eradication, were located in Oceania and Europe, while the more affected regions were Central and South America, Africa and parts of Asia. Among the Non-Enzootic countries, the results showed that a very high proportion managed to control the disease during the period of study, with a sharp decline in the percentage of infected countries from 71% in 1996 to 10% in 2014. Among the Enzootic countries, a much smaller proportion managed to control the disease, with a slight drop in the percentage of infected countries from 92% in 1996 to 80% in 2014. A relationship was found between the status of the disease and the availability of economic resources; thus, countries with a high GDP per capita tended to be free from bovine brucellosis. On the other hand, countries with a larger bovine population showed a greater probability to have the disease present. An increase in surveillance programmes and implementation of control policies were observed during the period of study., (© 2019 Blackwell Verlag GmbH.)

Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) is of major importance for human and animal health because of high morbidity and mortality in poultry and the potential for transmission of this zoonotic pathogen to humans. Knowledge of HPAI epidemiology in avian populations and practical information on the temporal and spatial spread of the disease after introduction into a country is important in order to enhance the capacity of predicting and managing epidemics to minimize the negative impacts on human and animal health. Using data reported to the World Organisation for Animal Health between 2005 and 2017 by 199 countries for 14,129 outbreaks in poultry, we used a spatial and time-series analysis to determine that: (a) During the last 12 years, there were two major global peaks in the number of countries affected by HPAI with 23% and 26% of countries affected in 2006 and 2016. (b) Based on the seasonality analysis, spread is the lowest in September, begins to rise in October, and peaks in February. (c) The median distance HPAI outbreaks spread from the index outbreak was 111 km, while the median apparent rate of spread of outbreaks was 1.9 km/day. (d) In 39% of HPAI events, the disease did not spread beyond the index outbreak and the median maximum spread from the index outbreak per event was 45 km. (e) The distance HPAI outbreaks spread from the index outbreak was significantly negatively correlated with the number of outbreaks during the same time period, indicating that the spread of HPAI was lower during global panzootics than during periods of low transmission. These findings are of major importance for veterinary services to design and implement surveillance measures for improving preparedness to minimize the impacts of this disease., (© 2018 Blackwell Verlag GmbH.)

Global economic impacts of epidemics suggest high return on investment in prevention and One Health capacity. However, such investments remain limited, contributing to persistent endemic diseases and vulnerability to emerging ones. An interdisciplinary workshop explored methods for country-level analysis of added value of One Health approaches to disease control. Key recommendations include: 1. systems thinking to identify risks and mitigation options for decision-making under uncertainty; 2. multisectoral economic impact assessment to identify wider relevance and possible resource-sharing, and 3. consistent integration of environmental considerations. Economic analysis offers a congruent measure of value complementing diverse impact metrics among sectors and contexts., (© The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.)

Introduction: Neurotoxic fish poisoning appears to be a recent phenomenon in the Mediterranean Sea. We report a case of deep non-reactive reversible coma after ingestion of Mediterranean fish innards., Case Report: An 80 year-old man, heavy smoker who had a previous cerebral infarct in the posterior territory, was admitted for rapid deterioration of his neurological condition. He started having perioral tingling, then dysarthria, then became quadriparetic, then developed respiratory and hemodynamic failure and within 3-4h, entered a state of deep non-reactive coma with absence of all brainstem reflexes. He started to improve after 20 h and recovered his neurological baseline within 36 h. Later on, he stated that all his symptoms started after he ingested the gonads of a toxic fish, Lagocephalus scleratus., Discussion: Tetrodotoxin blocks voltage-gated sodium channels and inhibits the production and propagation of action potentials. This toxin is highly concentrated in the liver, gonads, intestines and skin of this fish that is well-known in Japan (where it is considered as a delicacy) and South-East Asia and seems to have migrated recently to the Mediterranean Sea. There is no known antidote to tetrodotoxin but intensive supportive treatment can be life-saving., (Copyright (c) 2009. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.)