Anthrax outbreak in a Swedish beef cattle herd - 1st case in 27 years: Case report

After 27 years with no detected cases, an outbreak of anthrax occurred in a beef cattle herd in the south of Sweden. The outbreak was unusual as it occurred in winter, in animals not exposed to meat-and-bone meal, in a non-endemic country

Epidemiology of Human Anthrax in China, 1955−2014

Using national surveillance data for 120,111 human anthrax cases recorded during 1955-2014, we analyzed the temporal, seasonal, geographic, and demographic distribution of this disease in China. After 1978, incidence decreased until 2013, when it reached a low of 0.014 cases/100,000 population. The case-fatality rate, cumulatively 3.6% during the study period, has also decreased since 1990. Cases occurred throughout the year, peaking in August. Geographic distribution decreased overall from west to east, but the cumulative number of affected counties increased during 2005-2014. The disease has shifted from industrial to agricultural workers; 86.7% of cases occurred in farmers and herdsmen. Most (97.7%) reported cases were the cutaneous form. Although progress has been made in reducing incidence, this study highlights areas that need improvement. Adequate laboratory diagnosis is lacking; only 7.6% of cases received laboratory confirmation. Geographic expansion of the disease indicates that livestock control programs will be essential in eradicating anthrax

Fluorescent polymer coated capillaries as optofluidic refractometric sensors

A capillary microresonator platform for refractometric sensing is demonstrated by coating the interior of thick-walled silica capillaries with a sub-wavelength layer of high refractive index, dye-doped polymer. No intermediate processing, such as etching or tapering, of the capillary is required. Side illumination and detection of the polymer layer reveals a fluorescence spectrum that is periodically modulated by whispering gallery mode resonances within the layer. Using a Fourier technique to calculate the spectral resonance shifts, the fabricated capillary resonators exhibited refractometric sensitivities up to approximately 30 nm/RIU upon flowing aqueous glucose through them. These sensors could be readily integrated with existing biological and chemical separation platforms such as capillary electrophoresis and gas chromatography where such thick walled capillaries are routinely used with polymer coatings. A review of the modelling required to calculate whispering gallery eigenmodes of such inverted cylindrical resonators is also presented.Kristopher J. Rowland, Alexandre François, Peter Hoffmann, and Tanya M. Monr

The Secret Life of the Anthrax Agent Bacillus anthracis: Bacteriophage-Mediated Ecological Adaptations

Ecological and genetic factors that govern the occurrence and persistence of anthrax reservoirs in the environment are obscure. A central tenet, based on limited and often conflicting studies, has long held that growing or vegetative forms of Bacillus anthracis survive poorly outside the mammalian host and must sporulate to survive in the environment. Here, we present evidence of a more dynamic lifecycle, whereby interactions with bacterial viruses, or bacteriophages, elicit phenotypic alterations in B. anthracis and the emergence of infected derivatives, or lysogens, with dramatically altered survival capabilities. Using both laboratory and environmental B. anthracis strains, we show that lysogeny can block or promote sporulation depending on the phage, induce exopolysaccharide expression and biofilm formation, and enable the long-term colonization of both an artificial soil environment and the intestinal tract of the invertebrate redworm, Eisenia fetida. All of the B. anthracis lysogens existed in a pseudolysogenic-like state in both the soil and worm gut, shedding phages that could in turn infect non-lysogenic B. anthracis recipients and confer survival phenotypes in those environments. Finally, the mechanism behind several phenotypic changes was found to require phage-encoded bacterial sigma factors and the expression of at least one host-encoded protein predicted to be involved in the colonization of invertebrate intestines. The results here demonstrate that during its environmental phase, bacteriophages provide B. anthracis with alternatives to sporulation that involve the activation of soil-survival and endosymbiotic capabilities