A Study on Selected Factors Influencing School Choice Among the Seventh-day Adventist Population in Southwest Michigan

The Problem. One of the most significant problems currently facing Seventh-day Adventist church schools in North America is declining enrollment in Grades K-12. In Southwest Michigan where this study was done. Seventh-day Adventist parents tend to make choices on where to send their children to school between Seventh-day Adventist schools and public schools. It was the purpose of this study to determine if a relationship exists between school choice and parental perception of selected causal factors. Method. The design of the study was empirical ex post facto using a descriptive survey research method with a Likert-type scale which was used to test eight hypotheses associated with the following select factors: Parental perception of spiritual values, cost of education, academic program, who influences choice decisions, social, proximity, safety, and awareness factors. Data were analyzed using multiple regression-stepwise method, ANOVA, and descriptive statistics. Open-ended comments were analyzed using a 17-category dichotomous scale. Results and Conclusions. There was a significant relationship between parental school choice and parents\u27 perception of spiritual value-based education, the cost of education, academic program, who influenced school choice, safety in school, and awareness. There was no significant relationship between parental school choice and parents\u27 perception of social factors and school proximity. Seventh-day Adventist parents with children in Seventh-day Adventist schools differed most with the Seventh-day Adventist parents with children in public schools in the area of academic program. Recommendations were made in the areas associated with the academic program, cost of education, safety, and awareness. Given the finding that both Seventh-day Adventist parents with children in Seventh-day Adventist schools and parents with children in public schools believe in the superiority of the Seventh-day Adventist educational system over the public educational system, it is imperative that school administrators attempt to fully exploit any given potential to achieve objectives. However, the declining demand for Adventist education is attributed to perceptual decline in its marginal value consequent to perceived improved image of public education as evidenced from the significant differences observed in this study

Quick PCR to detect M. tuberculosis and M. bovis in swine blood samples

The disease control strategies in livestock are the key areas to enhance improvement of livestock production and safety of livestock product consumers. Therefore, reliable techniques for quick detection and specific identification of disease causing agents need to be developed. In this study a nested PCR was developed using primer primier 5.0 software for primer design targeting IS1081 gene conserved regions in both M. tuberculosis and M. bovis. Two sets of primers TB-Q1/TB-Q2 and TB-B1/TB-B2, were designed to detect M. tuberculosis and M. bovis DNA extracted from blood samples. The findings were, the assay is sensitive enough to detect up to 1.35fg of the antigen DNA with 100% specificity

Molecular epidemiology of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and Shiga toxin producing E. coli (STEC) in dairy herds of central Zambia

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a worldwide public health concern. While it is evident that the use of antibiotics creates selection pressure for the evolution of antibiotic resistance genes, there are still considerable knowledge gaps relating to the status quo of antibiotic use, emergence of resistant pathogens in different livestock production systems and spread within human and animal communities. This thesis includes a survey of antibiotic use in the dairy sector within a specific area of Zambia and analysis of AMR and virulence factors in E. coli isolated from dairy cattle and diarrhoea human patients with the following objectives. 1. To investigate the usage of antibiotics in the dairy sector and the drivers for use. 2. To determine the prevalence and patterns of antimicrobial resistance in E. coli isolated from faecal samples of dairy cattle. 3. To use whole genome sequencing (WGS) to investigate the molecular epidemiology of resistance determinants in E. coli strains isolated from both dairy cattle and humans. 4. To assess the zoonotic potential of isolated E. coli focusing on Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) and relationship to STEC associated with clinical disease in the UK. In view of these objectives, the first part of the work was carried out in Zambia and involved a questionnaire, a field survey, isolation of E. coli from dairy cattle faecal samples and phenotypic testing for AMR. In addition, E. coli isolates were obtained from another study that was focused on human patients presenting with diarrhoea at the University Teaching Hospital in Lusaka. The second part involved whole genome sequencing and molecular analyses of E. coli for resistance and virulence genotypes at the Roslin Institute (UK). For the field study, a stratified random sample of 104 farms was studied, representing approximately 20% of all dairy farms in the region. On each farm, faecal samples were collected from a random sample of animals and a standardised questionnaire on the usage of antibiotics was completed. An E. coli isolate was obtained from 98.67% (371/376) of the sampled animals and tested for resistance against the six types of antibiotics (tetracycline, ampicillin, sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim, cefpodoxime, gentamicin and ciprofloxacin). These E. coli were then analysed together with those from humans for genotypes in the laboratory and from Illumina short read whole genome sequences using bioinformatics tools. Tetracylines and penicillin were the commonly used antibiotics in dairy herds. This finding was in line with the resistance phenotypes detected in E. coli isolated from the dairy cattle. The most prevalent AMR was to tetracycline (10.61; 95%CI: 7.40-13.82), followed by ampicillin (6.02; 95%CI: 3.31-8.73), sulfamethoxazole/ trimethoprim (4.49; 95%CI: 2.42-6.56), cefpodoxime (1.91; 95%CI: 0.46-3.36), gentamicin (0.89; 95%CI: 0.06-1.84) and ciprofloxacin (0%). The risk analysis indicated that AMR was associated with livestock diseases (lumpy skin disease and foot rot), exotic breeds (Jersey and Friesian), location, farm size and certain management practices. Analysis of whole genome sequences showed that isolates from humans had both higher levels and a greater diversity of resistance alleles than the cattle isolates. Common genotypes in both populations were: tetA (16%), tetB (10%), tetC (2%) for cattle isolates with tetA (32%), tetB (22%) and tetD (1%) in human isolates. Other common genotypes were blaTEM (56%), sul1 (29%), sul2 (66%), strA4 (57%) and strB1 (64%) in isolates of human origin while blaTEM (15%), sul1 (3%), sul2 (17%), strA4 (13%) and strB1 (19%) were in the cattle isolates. Whilst the E. coli isolates from cattle encoded resistance to common antibiotics of limited significance to human clinical medicine, isolates from humans had additional extended spectrum beta-lactamases (blaOXA, blaCMY, blaNDM, and blaDHA, blaOKP and blaCTX-M) that encode for resistance to essential antibiotics such as third generation cephalosporins and carbapenems. This was an evidence that AMR is an ongoing public health subject in Zambia but the exclusivity of certain resistances in the human population points to limited or no exchange of genotypes between E. coli of human origin and those from cattle. AMR in humans was probably independently selected by the use of antibiotics of clinical importance such as cephalosporin and fluoroquinolones. The virulence analysis focused on STEC, 11% (41/371) of E. coli isolates from cattle contained Shiga toxin genes (stx) while none (0/73) of the human isolates were positive. Phylogenetic analysis showed a random distribution of bovine STEC, with no indication of clonal spread. Although 89% (16/18) of the STEC tested had a cytotoxic effect on Vero cells, indicative of Shiga toxin production, only three (O45, O111, O157) belonged to one of the seven serogroups (O26, O157, O111, O103, O121, O145 and O45) associated with life-threatening enterohaemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) infections in humans. In line with this, only the O157 serotype encoded a type 3 secretion system. This shows that, while Stx-encoding strains are common in these dairy herds of Zambia, they are not strain backgrounds known to pose an immediate threat to human health as they lack colonisation factors that are found in typical human EHEC. However, we must remain vigilant as emergence of EHEC strains in these animals remains an ever-present threat

Whole Genome Sequence Analysis Reveals Lower Diversity and Frequency of Acquired Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Genes in E. coli From Dairy Herds Compared With Human Isolates From the Same Region of Central Zambia

Antibiotic treatment of sick dairy cattle is critical for the sustainability of this production system which is vital for food security and societal prosperity in many low and middle-income countries. Given the increasingly high levels of antibiotic resistance worldwide and the challenge this presents for the treatment of bacterial infections, the rational use of antibiotics in humans and animals has been emphatically recommended in the spirit of a “One Health” approach. The aim of this study was to characterize antimicrobial resistance (AMR) genes and their frequencies from whole genome sequences of Escherichia coli isolated from both dairy cattle and human patients in central Zambia. Whole genome sequences of E. coli isolates from dairy cattle (n = 224) and from patients at a local hospital (n = 73) were compared for the presence of acquired AMR genes. In addition we analyzed the publicly available genomes of 317 human E. coli isolates from over the wider African continent. Both acquired antibiotic resistance genes and phylogroups were identified from de novo assemblies and SNP based phylogenetic analyses were used to visualize the distribution of resistance genes in E. coli isolates from the two hosts. Greater acquired AMR gene diversity was detected in human compared to bovine E. coli isolates across multiple classes of antibiotics with particular resistance genes for extended-spectrum beta lactamases (ESBL), quinolones, macrolides and fosfomycin only detected in E. coli genomes of human origin. The striking difference was that the Zambian or wider African human isolates were significantly more likely to possess multiple acquired AMR genes compared to the Zambian dairy cattle isolates. The median number of resistance genes in the Zambian cattle cohort was 0 (0–1 interquartile range), while in the Zambian human and wider African cohorts the medians and interquartile ranges were 6 (4–9) and 6 (0–8), respectively. The lower frequency and reduced diversity of acquired AMR genes in the dairy cattle isolates is concordant with relatively limited antibiotic use that we have documented in this region, especially among smallholder farmers. The relatively distinct resistant profiles in the two host populations also indicates limited sharing of strains or genes

Optical mapping compendium of structural variants across global cattle breeds

Structural variants (SV) have been linked to important bovine disease phenotypes, but due to the difficulty of their accurate detection with standard sequencing approaches, their role in shaping important traits across cattle breeds is largely unexplored. Optical mapping is an alternative approach for mapping SVs that has been shown to have higher sensitivity than DNA sequencing approaches. The aim of this project was to use optical mapping to develop a high-quality database of structural variation across cattle breeds from different geographical regions, to enable further study of SVs in cattle. To do this we generated 100X Bionano optical mapping data for 18 cattle of nine different ancestries, three continents and both cattle sub-species. In total we identified 13,457 SVs, of which 1,200 putatively overlap coding regions. This resource provides a high-quality set of optical mapping-based SV calls that can be used across studies, from validating DNA sequencing-based SV calls to prioritising candidate functional variants in genetic association studies and expanding our understanding of the role of SVs in cattle evolution