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 resistomes of rural and urban pigs and poultry in Ghana

There is limited knowledge on the bacteriome and resistome in livestock in Africa and the potential influence of the animal husbandry practices and scale has also been scantly explored. We quantified and characterized the antimicrobial resistance gene (ARG) pools (resistomes) and bacteriome in 30 pigs and 60 poultry samples (free-range: rural and urban, and industrialized) across Ghana using Resfinder and Silva databases and compared them to similar data from pigs and poultry from nine European countries. The pig and poultry were very different in ARG and bacterial abundance and composition. The bacterial communities in the Ghanaian samples also differed substantially from the European samples, especially driven by a much higher abundance of Subdoligranulum in both animals. We found lower ARG loads in Ghanaian pigs compared to European counterparts. Among poultry, urban free-range samples exhibited lower ARG abundances compared to the lowest European levels, while rural free-range samples were comparable to the European average, and industrialized samples showed higher ARG abundances. Despite major differences in abundance, the resistome composition of Ghanaian urban, rural, and industrialized poultry samples was similar. Contrasts with European samples were mainly driven by increased abundances of different tetracycline resistance genes in Ghanaian samples, and increased abundances of ARGs encoding resistance to macrolides, beta-lactams, and trimethoprim in Europe. Among pig samples, the main differences were caused by ARGs encoding resistance to nitroimidazoles, beta-lactams, and macrolides in European samples. This study is, to the best of our knowledge, the first report on the resistome measured using metagenomics in livestock from Sub-Saharan Africa.Importance: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on the resistomes that are measured using metagenomics in livestock from Sub-Saharan Africa. We find notable differences in the microbiomes between both pigs and poultry, and those also varied markedly compared to similar samples from Europe. However, for both animal species, the same bacterial taxa drove such differences. In pigs and urban free-range poultry, we find a very low abundance of antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs), whereas rural free-range poultry displayed similarity to the European average, and industrialized poultry exhibited higher levels. These findings show how different African livestock bacterial communities and resistomes are from their European counterparts. They also underscore the importance of continued surveillance and investigation into antimicrobial resistance across diverse ecosystems, contributing significantly to global efforts toward combating the threat of antibiotic resistance

Genetically Different Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza A(H5N1) Viruses in West Africa, 2015

To trace the evolution of highly pathogenic influenza A(H5N1) virus in West Africa, we sequenced genomes of 43 viruses collected during 2015 from poultry and wild birds in 5 countries. We found 2 co-circulating genetic groups within clade 2.3.2.1c. Mutations that may increase adaptation to mammals raise concern over possible risk for humans

Genetically Different Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza A(H5N1) Viruses in West Africa, 2015

To trace the evolution of highly pathogenic influenza A(H5N1) virus in West Africa, we sequenced genomes of 43 viruses collected during 2015 from poultry and wild birds in 5 countries. We found 2 co-circulating genetic groups within clade 2.3.2.1c. Mutations that may increase adaptation to mammals raise concern over possible risk for humans.status: publishe

The chromatin landscape of healthy and injured cell types in the human kidney

There is a need to define regions of gene activation or repression that control human kidney cells in states of health, injury, and repair to understand the molecular pathogenesis of kidney disease and design therapeutic strategies. Comprehensive integration of gene expression with epigenetic features that define regulatory elements remains a significant challenge. We measure dual single nucleus RNA expression and chromatin accessibility, DNA methylation, and H3K27ac, H3K4me1, H3K4me3, and H3K27me3 histone modifications to decipher the chromatin landscape and gene regulation of the kidney in reference and adaptive injury states. We establish a spatially-anchored epigenomic atlas to define the kidney’s active, silent, and regulatory accessible chromatin regions across the genome. Using this atlas, we note distinct control of adaptive injury in different epithelial cell types. A proximal tubule cell transcription factor network of ELF3, KLF6, and KLF10 regulates the transition between health and injury, while in thick ascending limb cells this transition is regulated by NR2F1. Further, combined perturbation of ELF3, KLF6, and KLF10 distinguishes two adaptive proximal tubular cell subtypes, one of which manifested a repair trajectory after knockout. This atlas will serve as a foundation to facilitate targeted cell-specific therapeutics by reprogramming gene regulatory networks. © 2024, The Author(s).Open access journalThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]