Socializing One Health: an innovative strategy to investigate social and behavioral risks of emerging viral threats

In an effort to strengthen global capacity to prevent, detect, and control infectious diseases in animals and people, the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Emerging Pandemic Threats (EPT) PREDICT project funded development of regional, national, and local One Health capacities for early disease detection, rapid response, disease control, and risk reduction. From the outset, the EPT approach was inclusive of social science research methods designed to understand the contexts and behaviors of communities living and working at human-animal-environment interfaces considered high-risk for virus emergence. Using qualitative and quantitative approaches, PREDICT behavioral research aimed to identify and assess a range of socio-cultural behaviors that could be influential in zoonotic disease emergence, amplification, and transmission. This broad approach to behavioral risk characterization enabled us to identify and characterize human activities that could be linked to the transmission dynamics of new and emerging viruses. This paper provides a discussion of implementation of a social science approach within a zoonotic surveillance framework. We conducted in-depth ethnographic interviews and focus groups to better understand the individual- and community-level knowledge, attitudes, and practices that potentially put participants at risk for zoonotic disease transmission from the animals they live and work with, across 6 interface domains. When we asked highly-exposed individuals (ie. bushmeat hunters, wildlife or guano farmers) about the risk they perceived in their occupational activities, most did not perceive it to be risky, whether because it was normalized by years (or generations) of doing such an activity, or due to lack of information about potential risks. Integrating the social sciences allows investigations of the specific human activities that are hypothesized to drive disease emergence, amplification, and transmission, in order to better substantiate behavioral disease drivers, along with the social dimensions of infection and transmission dynamics. Understanding these dynamics is critical to achieving health security--the protection from threats to health-- which requires investments in both collective and individual health security. Involving behavioral sciences into zoonotic disease surveillance allowed us to push toward fuller community integration and engagement and toward dialogue and implementation of recommendations for disease prevention and improved health security

The effects of storage conditions on the viability of enteropathogenics bacteria in biobanking of human stools: Cases of Yersinia enterocolitica, Salmonella enterica Typhimurium and Vibrio cholerae O: 1

Long-terms recoverability of enteropathogens is necessary for future epidemiological studies to screen stool samples when conditions do not permit immediate processing. The aim of this study was to determine the viability and the recoverability of three enteropathogens bacteria (Yersinia enterocolitica, Vibrio cholerae O: 1 and Salmonella enterica Typhimurium) artificially contaminated at 107 CFU/ml in human stool samples after our storage conditions. Preservations media used were saline, phosphate buffered saline (PBS) and Modified PBS without glycerol and containing 10 and 20% glycerol at three temperatures (4, -20 and -80°C). The viabilities and the recoverabilities of these strains were determined (weekly and monthly) respectively by plating onto tryptic soy agar and detection from artificial inoculated stools samples onto specifics agars. Bacteria populations decreased by 1-5 log10 CFU/ml depending on the strains tested, on the preservation media, on the glycerol concentration and the storage condition. The greatest population decrease was observed in the first week of storage at +4°C and freezing at -20°C and a slow decline in survival occurred thereafter. No organisms were recovered after one month from samples at these temperatures. When samples were subjected to storage at -80°C, all enteropathogenics bacterial were recovered after nine months storage. Keys words: Biobanking, enteropathogenics bacteria, storage conditions, preservation media, Côte d’Ivoire

Yersinia enterocolitica biotype 1B case report: an unusual pathogen in an osteoarticular infection on device

International audienceYersinia enterocolitica is an aero-anaerobic Gram-negative coccobacilli of the Enterobacteriaceae family, rarely reported in osteoarticular infection

Yersinia enterocolitica, a Neglected Cause of Human Enteric Infections in Côte d’Ivoire

International audienceBackground: Enteropathogenic Yersinia circulate in the pig reservoir and are the third bacterial cause of human gastrointestinal infections in Europe. In West Africa, reports of human yersiniosis are rare. This study was conducted to determine whether pathogenic Yersinia are circulating in pig farms and are responsible for human infections in the Abidjan District. Methodology/Principal findings: From June 2012 to December 2013, pig feces were collected monthly in 41 swine farms of the Abidjan district. Of the 781 samples collected, 19 Yersinia strains were isolated in 3 farms: 7 non-pathogenic Yersinia intermedia and 12 pathogenic Yersinia enterocolitica bioserotype 4/O:3. Farm animals other than pigs and wild animals were not found infected. Furthermore, 2 Y. enterocolitica 4/O:3 strains were isolated from 426 fecal samples of patients with digestive disorders. All 14 Y. enterocolitica strains shared the same PFGE and MLVA profile, indicating their close genetic relationship. However, while 6 of them displayed the usual phage type VIII, the other 8 had the highly infrequent phage type XI. Whole genome sequencing and SNP analysis of individual colonies revealed that phage type XI strains had unusually high rates of mutations. These strains displayed a hypermutator phenotype that was attributable to a large deletion in the mutS gene involved in DNA mismatch repair. Conclusions/Significance: This study demonstrates that pathogenic Y. enterocolitica circulate in the pig reservoir in Côte d'Ivoire and cause human infections with a prevalence comparable to that of many developed countries. The paucity of reports of yersiniosis in West Africa is most likely attributable to a lack of active detection rather than to an absence of the microorganism. The identification of hypermutator strains in pigs and humans is of concern as these strains can rapidly acquire selective advantages that may increase their fitness, pathogenicity or resistance to commonly used treatments