Improved SST-precipitation intraseasonal relationships in the ECMWF coupled climate reanalysis

The European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) has produced the ocean-atmosphere coupled reanalysis for the 20th century CERA-20C, following on from the similar, but atmosphere-only, reanalysis ERA-20C. Here we demonstrate the capability of CERA-20C in producing more physically consistent ocean and atmosphere boundary conditions, by focusing on sea surface temperature (SST)-precipitation intra-seasonal relationships. CERA-20C reproduces well the observed SST-precipitation correlations, while these relationships are poorly represented in ERA-20C, with the greatest discrepancies in the early 1900s. The improved relationships in CERA-20C are due to intra-seasonal improvements in SST that are not present in the external HadISST2 product. In CERA-20C, SST-precipitation relationships are slightly weaker in the 1900s than in the 2000s, mainly due to differences in the assimilated observation density. We also find that the coupled model initialized from CERA-20C in the 2000s realistically simulates these relationships, while relaxing SST towards HadISST2 tends to damp these relationships. CERA-20C has improved mean and variance in precipitation over ERA-20C, but these are mostly due to improvements in the atmospheric model and not due to coupled feedbacks

Characterization of plasmids harboring <i>bla</i>_CTX-M and <i>bla</i>_CMY genes in <i>E</i>. <i>coli</i> from French broilers

<div><p>Resistance to extended-spectrum cephalosporins (ESC) is a global health issue. The aim of this study was to analyze and compare plasmids coding for resistance to ESC isolated from 16 avian commensal and 17 avian pathogenic <i>Escherichia coli</i> (APEC) strains obtained respectively at slaughterhouse or from diseased broilers in 2010–2012. Plasmid DNA was used to transform <i>E</i>. <i>coli</i> DH5alpha, and the resistances of the transformants were determined. The sequences of the ESC-resistance plasmids prepared from transformants were obtained by Illumina (33 plasmids) or PacBio (1 plasmid). Results showed that 29 of these plasmids contained the <i>bla</i>_CTX-M-1 gene and belonged to the IncI1/ST3 type, with 27 and 20 of them carrying the <i>sul2</i> or <i>tet</i>(A) genes respectively. Despite their diverse origins, several plasmids showed very high percentages of identity. None of the <i>bla</i>_CTX-M-1-containing plasmid contained APEC virulence genes, although some of them were detected in the parental strains. Three plasmids had the <i>bla</i>_CMY-2 gene, but no other resistance gene. They belonged to IncB/O/K/Z-like or IncFIA/FIB replicon types. The <i>bla</i>_CMY-2 IncFIA/FIB plasmid was obtained from a strain isolated from a diseased broiler and also containing a <i>bla</i>_CTX-M-1 IncI1/ST3 plasmid. Importantly APEC virulence genes (<i>sitA-D</i>, <i>iucA-D</i>, <i>iutA</i>, <i>hlyF</i>, <i>ompT</i>, <i>etsA-C</i>, <i>iss</i>, <i>iroB-E</i>, <i>iroN</i>, <i>cvaA-C</i> and <i>cvi</i>) were detected on the <i>bla</i>_CMY-2 plasmid. In conclusion, our results show the dominance and high similarity of <i>bla</i>_CTX-M-1 IncI1/ST3 plasmids, and the worrying presence of APEC virulence genes on a <i>bla</i>_CMY-2 plasmid.</p></div

Main characteristics of strains.

<p>Main characteristics of strains.</p

Main characteristics of sequenced plasmids.

<p>Main characteristics of sequenced plasmids.</p