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Antimicrobial stewardship initiatives are widely regarded as a cornerstone for ameliorating the global healthimpact of antimicrobial resistance. Within companion animal health, such efforts have largely focused ondevelopment and dissemination of antimicrobial stewardship guidelines (ASGs). However, there have been fewattempts to understand veterinarian attitudes towards and knowledge of ASGs or to determine how awarenessregarding ASGs might best be increased. An online survey regarding ASGs was formulated for veterinarians whotreat companion animals. The survey was distributed across 46 European and associated countries between 12January and 30 June, 2022. In total, 2271 surveys were completed, with 64.9% of respondents (n = 1474)reporting awareness and usage of at least one ASG. Respondents from countries with greater awareness of ASGstended to report more appropriate use of antimicrobials (Spearman’s rank coefficient = 0.6084, P ≤ 0.001), withrespondents from countries with country-specific ASGs tending to score highest across both awareness andappropriate use domains. Respondents prioritised guidance around antimicrobial choice (82.0%, n = 1863),duration of treatment (66.0%, n = 1499), and dosage (51.9%, n = 1179) for inclusion in future ASGs, with 78.0%(n = 1776) of respondents preferring ASGs to be integrated into their patient management system. Awareness ofASGs and their use in companion animal veterinary practice appears to be greater than previously reported, withrespondents tending to report antimicrobial prescription decision making broadly in line with current clinicalrecommendations. However, further initiatives aimed at maximising accessibility to ASGs both within countriesand individual veterinary practices are recommended., Antimicrobial stewardship initiatives are widely regarded as a cornerstone for ameliorating the global health impact of antimicrobial resistance. Within companion animal health, such efforts have largely focused on development and dissemination of antimicrobial stewardship guidelines (ASGs). However, there have been few attempts to understand veterinarian attitudes towards and knowledge of ASGs or to determine how awareness regarding ASGs might best be increased. An online survey regarding ASGs was formulated for veterinarians who treat companion animals. The survey was distributed across 46 European and associated countries between 12 January and 30 June, 2022. In total, 2271 surveys were completed, with 64.9% of respondents (n = 1474) reporting awareness and usage of at least one ASG. Respondents from countries with greater awareness of ASGs tended to report more appropriate use of antimicrobials (Spearman's rank coefficient = 0.6084, P ≤ 0.001), with respondents from countries with country-specific ASGs tending to score highest across both awareness and appropriate use domains. Respondents prioritised guidance around antimicrobial choice (82.0%, n = 1863), duration of treatment (66.0%, n = 1499), and dosage (51.9%, n = 1179) for inclusion in future ASGs, with 78.0% (n = 1776) of respondents preferring ASGs to be integrated into their patient management system. Awareness of ASGs and their use in companion animal veterinary practice appears to be greater than previously reported, with respondents tending to report antimicrobial prescription decision making broadly in line with current clinical recommendations. However, further initiatives aimed at maximising accessibility to ASGs both within countries and individual veterinary practices are recommended.

Nanopore sequencing and phylodynamic modeling have been used to reconstruct the transmission dynamics of viral epidemics, but their application to bacterial pathogens has remained challenging. Cost-effective bacterial genome sequencing and variant calling on nanopore platforms would greatly enhance surveillance and outbreak response in communities without access to sequencing infrastructure. Here, we adapt random forest models for single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) polishing developed by Sanderson and colleagues (2020. High precision Neisseria gonorrhoeae variant and antimicrobial resistance calling from metagenomic nanopore sequencing. Genome Res. 30(9):1354-1363) to estimate divergence and effective reproduction numbers (Re) of two methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) outbreaks from remote communities in Far North Queensland and Papua New Guinea (PNG; n = 159). Successive barcoded panels of S. aureus isolates (2 × 12 per MinION) sequenced at low coverage (>5× to 10×) provided sufficient data to accurately infer genotypes with high recall when compared with Illumina references. Random forest models achieved high resolution on ST93 outbreak sequence types (>90% accuracy and precision) and enabled phylodynamic inference of epidemiological parameters using birth-death skyline models. Our method reproduced phylogenetic topology, origin of the outbreaks, and indications of epidemic growth (Re > 1). Nextflow pipelines implement SNP polisher training, evaluation, and outbreak alignments, enabling reconstruction of within-lineage transmission dynamics for infection control of bacterial disease outbreaks on portable nanopore platforms. Our study shows that nanopore technology can be used for bacterial outbreak reconstruction at competitive costs, providing opportunities for infection control in hospitals and communities without access to sequencing infrastructure, such as in remote northern Australia and PNG.

Urbanization is rapidly transforming much of Southeast Asia, altering the structure and function of the landscape, as well as the frequency and intensity of the interactions between people, animals, and the environment. In this study, we explored the impact of urbanization on zoonotic disease risk by simultaneously characterizing changes in the ecology of animal reservoirs (rodents), ectoparasite vectors (ticks), and pathogens across a gradient of urbanization in Kuching, a city in Malaysian Borneo. We sampled 863 rodents across rural, developing, and urban locations and found that rodent species diversity decreased with increasing urbanization-from 10 species in the rural location to 4 in the rural location. Notably, two species appeared to thrive in urban areas, as follows: the invasive urban exploiter Rattus rattus (n = 375) and the native urban adapter Sundamys muelleri (n = 331). R. rattus was strongly associated with built infrastructure across the gradient and carried a high diversity of pathogens, including multihost zoonoses capable of environmental transmission (e.g., Leptospira spp.). In contrast, S. muelleri was restricted to green patches where it was found at high densities and was strongly associated with the presence of ticks, including the medically important genera Amblyomma, Haemaphysalis, and Ixodes. Our analyses reveal that zoonotic disease risk is elevated and heterogeneously distributed in urban environments and highlight the potential for targeted risk reduction through pest management and public health messaging.

Community-associated, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) lineages have emerged in many geographically distinct regions around the world during the past 30 y. Here, we apply consistent phylodynamic methods across multiple community-associated MRSA lineages to describe and contrast their patterns of emergence and dissemination. We generated whole-genome sequencing data for the Australian sequence type (ST) ST93-MRSA-IV from remote communities in Far North Queensland and Papua New Guinea, and the Bengal Bay ST772-MRSA-V clone from metropolitan communities in Pakistan. Increases in the effective reproduction number (Re) and sustained transmission (Re > 1) coincided with spread of progenitor methicillin-susceptible S. aureus (MSSA) in remote northern Australian populations, dissemination of the ST93-MRSA-IV genotype into population centers on the Australian East Coast, and subsequent importation into the highlands of Papua New Guinea and Far North Queensland. Applying the same phylodynamic methods to existing lineage datasets, we identified common signatures of epidemic growth in the emergence and epidemiological trajectory of community-associated S. aureus lineages from America, Asia, Australasia, and Europe. Surges in Re were observed at the divergence of antibiotic-resistant strains, coinciding with their establishment in regional population centers. Epidemic growth was also observed among drug-resistant MSSA clades in Africa and northern Australia. Our data suggest that the emergence of community-associated MRSA in the late 20th century was driven by a combination of antibiotic-resistant genotypes and host epidemiology, leading to abrupt changes in lineage-wide transmission dynamics and sustained transmission in regional population centers.

The chapter presents a disruptive practice of creative and auto/biographical writing inspired by Milanese feminist’s method developed in the Seventies. The authors, three researchers and adult educators, use this method called “mineralogy of thought” as a way to challenge normative structures of the academy and traditional education. They invited to research with them two artists, a dancer and a pianist, with the aim of bringing academic knowledge closer to lived lives through aesthetic practices. The result is the composition of a creative play script, written form embodied narratives, that they presented as a performance during an international conference. It emerges from the text, the obscure matter of experience, that politics and the academy have always considered ‘other’ and not adequate modes of knowing and thinking about the world: body, feeling, dreams, and sensuality.