Risk of Importing Zoonotic Diseases through Wildlife Trade, United States

Proactive changes are needed to protect the public from myriad serious diseases

Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever in Dogs, Brazil

Clinical illness caused by Rickettsia rickettsii in dogs has been reported solely in the United States. We report 2 natural clinical cases of Rocky Mountain spotted fever in dogs in Brazil. Each case was confirmed by seroconversion and molecular analysis and resolved after doxycycline therapy

Design and Construction of a Low-Cost Mechanical Loading Bioreactor

This article reports the design and construction of an open-source compressive loading and perfusion flow bioreactor for under $4000, as well as validation of the device and an example use-application. The bioreactor is capable of recording applied force and displacement as well as regulating media flow rate. This bioreactor was built to be user friendly, widely adaptable for modular changes, and made of readily available materials

Exposure of dogs to spotted fever group rickettsiae in urban sites associated with human rickettsioses in Costa Rica

The zoonotic transmission cycles of Rickettsia rickettsii and other spotted fever group (SFG) rickettsiae in Latin America have usually been associated with rural or sylvatic environments, although domestic dogs can be implicated in more populated settings. In this study, exposure of dogs to SFG rickettsiae in the Greater Metropolitan Area of Costa Rica was investigated. Dogs from sites associated with human cases and from dog shelters were evaluated by indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFA) using antigen of SFG rickettsiae. Rickettsia spp. were detected in ectoparasites by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). A total 18.5% (31/168) of dogs associated with human cases and 6.8% (11/161) of dogs in shelters had IgG end titers ≥ 64 to Rickettsia spp. The odds of being seropositive were greater in dogs from areas associated with human cases when compared to shelters (OR: 3.2; 95% C.I: 1.5–5.6). Rhipicephalus sanguineus sensu lato (s. l.) was present in all sites associated with human cases. Rickettsia felis URRWXCal2 and R. felislike RF2125 were detected in Ctenocephalides felis, and Rickettsia sp. IbR/CRC in Ixodes boliviensis. Results demonstrate that dogs from the main urban center of Costa Rica have been exposed to SFG rickettsiae, especially in areas with known human infection. Both human and animal health sectors must be aware of possible rickettsial diseases in urban areas, where dogs may also serve as sentinels for human infectionUniversidad de Costa Rica/[803-B2-225]/UCR/Costa RicaUCR::Vicerrectoría de Investigación::Unidades de Investigación::Ciencias de la Salud::Centro de Investigación en Enfermedades Tropicales (CIET)UCR::Vicerrectoría de Docencia::Salud::Facultad de Microbiologí