Disease Outbreak

A disease outbreak investigation was conducted in western Queensland to investigate a rare suspected outbreak of pyrrolizidine alkaloid (PA) toxicosis in horses. Thirty five of 132 horses depastured on five properties on the Mitchell grass plains of western Queensland died in the first six months of 2010. Clinical-pathological findings were consistent with PA toxicosis. A local variety of Crotalaria medicaginea was the only hepatotoxic plant found growing on affected properties. Pathology reports and departure and arrival dates of two brood mares provided evidence of a pre wet season exposure period. All five affected properties experienced a very dry spring and early summer preceded by a large summer wet season. The outbreak was characterised as a point epidemic with a sudden peak of deaths in March followed by mortalities steadily declining until the end of June. The estimated morbidity (serum IGG>50IU/L) rate was 76%. Average crude mortality was 27% but higher in young horses ...

Levels of parasitism and the dynamics of helminth systems is subject to the impact of environmental conditions such that we may expect long term increases in temperature will increase the force of infection and the parasite's basic reproduction number, R0. We postulate that an increase in the force of infection will only lead to an increase in mean intensity of adults when adult parasite mortality is not determined by acquired immunity. Preliminary examination of long term trends of parasites of rabbits and grouse confirm these predictions. Parasite development rate increases with temperature and while laboratory studies indicate this is linear some recent studies indicate that this may be non-linear and would have an important impact on R0. Warming would also reduce the selective pressure for the development of arrestment and this would increase R0 so that in systems like the grouse and Trichostrongylus tenuis this would increase the instability and lead to larger disease outbr...

A study was carried out to estimate the proportion of diseases due to milk and milk products among food-borne diseases recorded in France and in other countries since 1980. Particular attention was given to whether the milk involved was heat-treated or not. Four etiologic agents were considered: Salmonella spp., Staphylococcus aureus, Listeria monocytogenes, and pathogenic Escherichia coli. An overview of food-borne disease annual reports from seven countries indicated that milk and milk products were implicated in 1-5% of the total bacterial outbreaks; however, details about the type of product and milk involved were usually not provided. When considering 60 outbreaks and four single cases described in the literature and implicating milk and milk products, confirmed or suspected food vehicles were distributed as follows: milk, 39.1%, cheese, 53.1%, other milk products, 7.8%. Overall, 32.8% of the food vehicles were made from pasteurised milk; 37.5% from raw milk; 10.9% from milk stated as "unpasteurised"; and 18.8% from unspecified milk. Salmonella spp. were responsible for 29 outbreaks, L. monocytogenes for 10 outbreaks and four well-documented single cases, pathogenic E. coli for 11 outbreaks, and S. aureus for 10 outbreaks. Analysis of unpublished data about food-borne disease outbreaks, listeriosis excluded, collected by the coordinator of the French surveillance system from 1992 to 1997, revealed 69 documented outbreaks for which milk and milk products were confirmed as the vehicle by the isolation of the etiologic agent. The food vehicles were distributed as follows: milk, 10%; cheese, 87%; others, 3%. UHT milk accounted for 1.5%, raw milk and raw milk products for 48%, and milk and milk products from unspecified milk for 50.5% of the 69 outbreaks. S. aureus was by far the most frequent pathogen associated with these outbreaks (85.5% of the outbreaks), followed by Salmonella (10.1%). This study demonstrates the limitations of the surveillance systems and the difficulties in estimating the contribution of milk and milk products to food-borne diseases. In particular, it was not possible to find out in many outbreaks what heat treatment, if any, the milk had undergone.

Edwardsiella ictaluri was consistently isolated from the spleens, livers, and head kidneys of diseased Nile tilapia Oreochromis niloticus from a farm experiencing mortality events in several culture ponds. We describe the first published outbreak of E. ictaluri–induced edwardsiellosis in Nile tilapia. Pure cultures of the isolated bacteria were characterized both biochemically and molecularly. Biochemical analysis was performed using the API-20E and RapID One systems, and antimicrobial susceptibility was determined by the broth microdilution method. Molecular analysis involved sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene, species-specific real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and PCR-mediated genomic fingerprinting (rep-PCR). Pairwise sequence analysis of the 16S rRNA gene identified the case isolates to be a 100% match to E. ictaluri cultured from channel catfish in the southeastern United States. However, rep-PCR analysis identified the case isolates to be genetically different from representative strains isolated from disease outbreaks in cultured channel catfish in Mississippi. Infectivity challenges (intraperitoneal injection and immersion) demonstrated that a representative E. ictaluri strain isolated from tilapia was pathogenic to naïve tilapia, reproducing clinical signs and mortality, thereby establishing Koch's postulates.Received August 30, 2011; accepted January 30, 2012

Beginning in the early 1990s, a new manner of articulating the threat posed by epidemics of infectious diseases took shape. ‘Global health security’ (GHS) emerged as a novel epistemic space as a response to the perceived threats posed by circulations and appearances of ‘global’ diseases. Marked throughout the 2000s by major events both political and pathogenic, GHS has undergone profound changes; from primarily a policy-legal framework to a forum for reconfiguring global health 'action'. This research examines how the problems that emerged in the 1990s are changing since the 2014 West African Ebola crisis and the announcement of new global health security projects and initiatives. How might these transformations constitute a new manner of thinking about, and acting on, epidemics as a ‘global’ problem?
  Contrasting genealogical-archival research with a series of field-based episodes, this dissertation explores how public health experts and technicians worked to define new problems and design the interventions aimed at addressing them. It juxtaposes a historical account of the emergence and transformation of GHS across the 2000s and 2010s against field-based ethnography of GHS during 2016 and 2017. Based on over a year working with a global health non-profit, the text’s episodes attend to day-to-day work that translated diffuse concepts of ‘threat' and ‘risk' into discrete technical practices and projects to mitigate and minimize those threats. Working with experts through the early stages of project development, attention is paid to the relational processes that went into making global health security a workable concept. Together, the episodes illustrate the routines and technical artistry that made GHS into a space not only to reimagine a ‘safer’ or ‘healthier’ world, but to build the means to realize it.
  The text also examines how communities of experts reworked their projects and programs during great destabilizations and disruptions, including both the 2016 US Presidential election as well as an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It explores how global health organizations and experts attempted to better 'prevent, detect, and respond' to public health emergencies after Ebola in 2014. Unpacking various understandings of the ‘global’ in GHS, it examines how experts worked to build novel 'global assemblages’ and reposition ‘reciprocal obligations between nations'. The research looks at novel techniques and technologies designed to ensure a ‘global’ community of healthy nations—ones able to live up to their responsibilities to care for and protect their vulnerable populations.
    In 2014, Ebola set the stage for dramatic changes to global health as new actors and organizations came to understand a pressing need for change. ‘GHS' emerged as a response to these calls for reform and improvement, an urgent effort to improve vulnerable health systems in developing countries. This research explores how GHS and some of its technicians became entangled with these emerging and evolving mix of policies, practices, and possibilities for global health practice.

Many foodborne diseases are associated with consumption of meat and poultry. Some pathogens were not previously known (new pathogens), others have newly arisen as foodborne (emerging pathogens), and others have become more potent or associated with other products (evolving pathogens). Many of these pathogens may cause severe illness, besides gastroenteritis. Campylobacter jejuni is a leading cause of food-associated bacterial illness; Campylobacter jejuni O:19 and other serotypes are common etiological agents of Guillain–Barré syndrome, a neuropathy due to autoimmune response. Salmonella Typhimurium DT104 and other serotypes have been found to be multi-drug resistant; salmonellosis may lead to chronic reactive arthritis. Many outbreaks of enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli have been associated with consumption of undercooked contaminated ground beef; complication may occur (e.g., hemolytic uremic syndrome and thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura). Listeria monocytogenes is ubiquitous; listeriosis is of major public health concern because of the severity and non-enteric nature of the disease (meningitis or meningoencephalitis, septicemia, and abortion) and its ability to multiply at refrigeration temperature. Arcobacter butzleri is a potential foodborne pathogen, and has been isolated from raw poultry, meat, and meat products; but its role in causing human illness is not fully understood. Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis can be transmitted by ingestion of raw and processed meats; the organism may contribute to Crohn’s disease, a chronic intestinal enteritis. Beef, pork, lamb, and/or poultry have been reported as sources of infection for the abovementioned organisms but have not been generally associated with disease outbreaks of some of the pathogens.

Tourism requires environmental resources as core ingredients and compelling backdrops for the production of tourism experiences. Paradoxically it also depends on the protection of the ecological integrity of these features for sustained competitiveness. This ‘resource paradox’ has epitomized relationships between tourism and the environment for decades. However, unprecedented reportings of the frequency, severity and persistence of adverse weather conditions; climate change; natural disasters; disease outbreaks; and various forms of environmental pollution, cumulatively highlight the urgency for more systematically managing tourism's resource paradox. This paper characterizes the industry's environmental and sustainability performance, and suggests planning and management approaches that will be needed to move it towards a more sustainable future. It uses a case study of ‘sustainability-focused’ tourism destination planning to illustrate the type of collective actions that must occur if the industry is to successfully manage tourism's challenging environmental relationships. It is argued that more collective and vision-oriented approaches to tourism industry planning are needed to address broader and more pervasive environmental and sustainability challenges.

Abstract. Few studies have included detailed investigations of the interactions of agroforestry techniques with pests and diseases, although the relevance of such interactions has long been recognized. The objectives of this review are to provide basic information on pests and ...

Aquaculture is one of the fastest developing growth sectors in the world and Asia presently contributes about 90% to the global production. However, disease outbreaks are constraint to aquaculture production thereby affects both economic development of the country and socio-economic status of the local people in many countries of Asia-Pacifi c region. Disease control in aquaculture industry has been achieved by following different methods using traditional ways, synthetic chemicals and antibiotics. However, the use of such expensive chemotherapeutants for controlling diseases has been widely criticized for their negative impacts like accumulation of residues, development of drug resistance, immunosuppressants and reduced consumer preference for aqua products treated with antibiotics and traditional methods are ineffective against controlling new diseases in large aquaculture systems. Therefore, alternative methods need to be developed to maintain a healthy microbial environment in the aquaculture systems there by to maintain the health of the cultured organisms. Use of probiotics is one of such method that is gaining importance in controlling potential pathogens. This review provides a summary of the criteria for the selection of the potential probiotics, their importance and future perspectives in aquaculture industry.

It is well documented that faecal contamination of drinking water has caused numerous disease outbreaks. Because the risks of disease outbreaks correlate with the incidence of faecal contamination, faecal bacteria are used as indicators of faecal contamination and hence, the possible presence of disease-causing organisms. However, different microbiological faecal indicators are used in different countries and jurisdictions. Therefore, it is important to understand the potentials and limitations of these indicator organisms before realistically implementing guidelines and regulations to safeguard our water resources. This review considers the history of indicator organisms, the evolution of the analytical methodologies (biochemical and molecular) and addresses the advantages and limitations of current faecal indicator microorganisms.

This report presents evidence on the progress made by national authorities and other agents over the past six months. Globally in the animal health sector, there have been some significant enhancements in avian influenza detection capacity, surveillance and reporting systems, trans-boundary disease controls, poultry vaccination policies, and poultry compensation arrangements. In the human health sector, there is evidence for global enhancements in surveillance and reporting systems; and the information obtained is consistent with increased numbers of health care workers trained in highly pathogenic avian influenza, with rising availability of personal protective equipment, and with growth in planned population coverage by anti-viral stockpiles. This report identifies as priorities for international action in 2007: firstly to sustain the political commitment for national and international action: the risk of complacency cannot be taken. Secondly, capability for rapid reporting and re...

This is a guideline for World Bank task team leaders (TTLs) entrusted with the design and execution of assessments to determine disaster impacts as well as post-disaster needs for recovery, reconstruction, and disaster risk reduction or management. Assessments estimate, first, the short-term government interventions required to initiate recovery and second, the financial requirements to achieve overall post-disaster recovery, reconstruction, and disaster risk management or reduction. The end product of the assessment is a comprehensive program of recovery, reconstruction, and risk management that will guide all actions in a developing country following a disaster. The damage and loss assessment (DaLA) methodology uses objective, quantitative information on the value of destroyed assets and temporary production losses to estimate, first, government interventions for the short term and second, post-disaster financing needs. The DaLA method ensures that the affected government, the Uni...

Percolation on two-dimensional small-world networks has been proposed as a model for the spread of plant diseases. In this paper we give an analytic solution of this model using a combination of generating function methods and high-order series expansion. Our solution gives accurate predictions for quantities such as the position of the percolation threshold and the typical size of disease outbreaks as a function of the density of "shortcuts" in the small-world network. Our results agree with scaling hypotheses and numerical simulations for the same model.