Characterization of virulence factors in the newly described <i>Salmonella enterica</i> serotype Keurmassar emerging in Senegal (sub-Saharan Africa)

From 2000 to 2001, nine strains of Salmonella enterica belonging to the new serotype Keurmassar have been isolated from human and poultry samples at the Senegalese National Salmonella and Shigella Reference Laboratory at the Pasteur Institute, in Dakar. All strains carried virulence factors including Salmonella Pathogenicity Islands (SPI)-1, -2, -3 and -5 encoded genes. Strains did not harbour virulence plasmid. Ribotyping analysis revealed a single clone identical to Salmonella Decatur isolated in Zimbabwe. These data suggest that strains are closely related, and may have been spread clonally. In this new serotype, insertion sequence IS200 is not present

World Health Organization Ranking of Antimicrobials According to Their Importance in Human Medicine: A Critical Step for Developing Risk Management Strategies for the Use of Antimicrobials in Food Production Animals

The use of antimicrobials in food animals creates an important source of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria that can spread to humans through the food supply. Improved management of the use of antimicrobials in food animals, particularly reducing the usage of those that are "critically important” for human medicine, is an important step toward preserving the benefits of antimicrobials for people. The World Health Organization has developed and applied criteria to rank antimicrobials according to their relative importance in human medicine. Clinicians, regulatory agencies, policy makers, and other stakeholders can use this ranking when developing risk management strategies for the use of antimicrobials in food production animals. The ranking allows stakeholders to focus risk management efforts on drugs used in food animals that are the most important to human medicine and, thus, need to be addressed most urgently, such as fluoroquinolones, macrolides, and third- and fourth-generation cephalosporin

Web-based Surveillance and Global Salmonella Distribution, 2000–2002

Surveillance improves control of Salmonella infections

Proficiency of WHO Global Foodborne Infections Network External Quality Assurance System participants in the identification and susceptibility testing of thermo-tolerant Campylobacter spp. from 2003-2012

Campylobacter spp. are foodborne and waterborne pathogens. While rather accurate estimates for these pathogens are available in industrialized countries, a lack of diagnostic capacity in developing countries limits accurate assessments of prevalence in many regions. Proficiency in the identification and susceptibility testing of these organisms is critical for surveillance and control efforts. The aim of the study was to assess performance for identification and susceptibility testing of thermotolerant Campylobacter spp. among laboratories participating in the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Foodborne Infections Network (GFN) External Quality Assurance System (EQAS) over a 9-year period. Participants (primarily national-level laboratories) were encouraged to self-evaluate their performance as part of continuous quality improvement. The ability to correctly identify Campylobacter spp. varied by year and ranged from 61.9% (2008) to 90.7% (2012), and the ability to correctly perform antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) for Campylobacter spp. appeared to steadily increase from 91.4% to 93.6% in the test period (2009 to 2012). The poorest performance (60.0% correct identification and 86.8% correct AST results) was observed in African laboratories. Overall, approximately 10% of laboratories reported either an incorrect identification or antibiogram. As most participants were supranational reference laboratories, these data raise significant concerns regarding capacity and proficiency at the local clinical level. Addressing these diagnostic challenges is critical for both patient-level management and broader surveillance and control efforts.</p

Global monitoring of antimicrobial resistance based on metagenomics analyses of urban sewage

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a serious threat to global public health, but obtaining representative data on AMR for healthy human populations is difficult. Here, we use meta-genomic analysis of untreated sewage to characterize the bacterial resistome from 79 sites in 60 countries. We find systematic differences in abundance and diversity of AMR genes between Europe/North-America/Oceania and Africa/Asia/South-America. Antimicrobial use data and bacterial taxonomy only explains a minor part of the AMR variation that we observe. We find no evidence for cross-selection between antimicrobial classes, or for effect of air travel between sites. However, AMR gene abundance strongly correlates with socio-economic, health and environmental factors, which we use to predict AMR gene abundances in all countries in the world. Our findings suggest that global AMR gene diversity and abundance vary by region, and that improving sanitation and health could potentially limit the global burden of AMR. We propose metagenomic analysis of sewage as an ethically acceptable and economically feasible approach for continuous global surveillance and prediction of AMR.Peer reviewe

Antimicrobial resistance in the food chain and the AGISAR initiative

Antimicrobial resistance is a major threat that medicine is now facing because bacteria have developed a strong defensive response to the increasing use of antibiotics. Bacteria have been able (i) to transfer to pathogens resistance genes naturally present in antibiotic producing organisms and the environment, and (ii) to evolve pre-existing enzymes to inhibit recently developed synthetic antibiotics. Resistance affects all types of antibiotics. In contrast, innovation in antibiotic research faded abruptly in the 1980s. Thus, we face situations in which bacteria resistant to most, if not all, antibiotics can cause serious infections

Bacterial Enteric Pathogens: Clostridium difficile, Salmonella, Shigella, Escherichia coli and others

translated in: Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Croatian, Russian, Greek.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Correspondence: Reply to Cohen and Denning

To the Editor — We agree with Cohen and Denning [1] that the large-scale use of antifungals in agriculture on crops is a potential threat to human populations, because resistant fungi that develop can be transmitted to humans [2]. We also agree that the issue of antimicrobial resistance should not be confined solely to the large-scale use of antibiotics. Overuse of antifungals (especially azole use) is an important issue. We also need to be concerned about possible large-scale use of antivirals in agriculture—for example, reports of amantidine and other anti-influenza antiviral use in poultry in China because of H5N1 outbreaks in fowl flocks [3, 4]—and then with the resultant risk of influenza strains developing resistance to antivirals if acquired by swine and/or humans.J. M. C. has received grants from Alberta Innovates-Health Solutions, personal fees and nonfinancial support from Pfizer, nonfinancial support from bioMérieux, and other support from the National Collaborating Centre for Infectious Diseases (Canada). A. A. has received personal fees from the Davoltera company (within the frame of the French law for innovation and research) and Cepheid and has received grants from the Agence Nationale pour le Recherche and from the European Union FP7 program. S. A. M. has been granted contracts from Health Canada and the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs