Category: Disease

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Disease Global Change News

Emerging infection could easily spread to U.S. amphibians

From the New York Times

An emerging infection similar to one that has caused the extinction of hundreds of frog and toad species around the world is killing salamanders in Europe and could easily spread to the United States, with disastrous effects, scientists reported Thursday.

Writing in the journal Science, an international team of 27 researchers blamed the spread of the disease on “globalization and a lack of biosecurity” and said the importation of the fire-bellied newt in the pet trade with Asia was the likely cause.

The lead researcher, An Martel of Ghent University in Belgium, said in an interview that Europe and the United States needed to start screening amphibians in the pet trade.

“When animals are traded, they should be screened,” Dr. Martel said. “It should involve the world.”

Other scientists agreed. “We need to pay attention to this paper,” said Vance T. Vredenburg of San Francisco State University, one of the scientists who has sounded the alarm about the extinction of hundreds of frog and toad species worldwide over the last four decades.

“We need to think about biosecurity not just in terms of humans and food that we eat and crops that we grow,” he said. “We need to think about functioning ecosystems.”

Categories
Disease Drinking water Global Change News

Probiotics for Your Pipes

The research of Dr. Amy Pruden, a core faculty member in both the Interfaces of Global Change IGEP and the Water Interfaces IGEP, was recently featured in VT News:

“A team of Virginia Tech researchers is investigating the challenges presented by four often deadly pathogens that have been documented in household or hospital tap water. They propose fighting these opportunistic pathogens with harmless microbes – a probiotic approach for cleaning up plumbing.

Writing in the American Chemical Society journal, Environmental Science and Technology, the researchers reviewed studies of opportunistic pathogens that have colonized water systems within buildings – between the delivery point and the tap. They define a probiotic approach as intentionally creating conditions that select for a desirable microbial community, or microbiome.

“We are putting forward a new way of thinking about waterborne pathogen control,” said Amy Pruden, a professor of civil and environmental engineering whose sustainable water research is supported by the Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science at Virginia Tech.

“We have new tools – the next generation DNA-sequencing tools, which have just come online in the last five years,” Pruden said. “They are providing unprecedented information about microbes in all sorts of environments, including “clean” drinking water. These tools have really surprised us by showing us the numbers and diversity of microbes. There can be thousands of different species of bacteria in a household water supply.”

The researchers focused on several opportunistic pathogens, including Legionella, the infamous cause of deadly Legionnaires’ disease and milder Pontiac fever; Mycobacterium avium complex, which causes pulmonary risks and is the most costly waterborne disease in terms of individual hospital visits; and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, the leading cause of hospital-acquired infections.

In addition, they looked at pathogenic free-living amoebae, which are host microorganisms that enhance the growth of bacterial pathogens in water, particularly Legionella and M. avium, by protecting them and providing a place for them to multiply.

Pruden, who still prefers to drink tap rather than bottled water, points out that these pathogens are “opportunistic” because they are most dangerous to people who are ill, such as those already in a hospital, and people with weaker immune systems, including the elderly.

“Pathogens from feces are dealt with by filtering or disinfecting. They are native to warm-blood animals and don’t survive long outside that environment. These next-generation pathogens live in biofilms in water systems,” Pruden said. “We need to develop a better understanding of conditions and types of bacteria in order to have a better opportunity to fight water-borne disease.”

Read the full article:

http://www.vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2013/11/110413-ictas-amyprudenmicrobes.html#.UnfGhfZIeMw.link

Categories
Climate Change Disease Global Change News

Moose Die-Off Alarms Scientists

Moose populations across North America are experiencing a sharp decline, and the exact cause is a mystery. 

“What exactly has changed remains a mystery. Several factors are clearly at work. But a common thread in most hypotheses is climate change.

Winters have grown substantially shorter across much of the moose’s range. In New Hampshire, a longer fall with less snow has greatly increased the number of winter ticks, a devastating parasite. “You can get 100,000 ticks on a moose,” said Kristine Rines, a biologist with the state’s Fish and Game Department.

In Minnesota, the leading culprits are brain worms and liver flukes. Both spend part of their life cycles in snails, which thrive in moist environments.

Another theory is heat stress. Moose are made for cold weather, and when the temperature rises above 23 degrees Fahrenheit in winter, as has happened more often in recent years, they expend extra energy to stay cool. That can lead to exhaustion and death.

In the Cariboo Mountains of British Columbia, a recent study pinned the decline of moose on the widespread killing of forest by an epidemic of pine bark beetles, which seem to thrive in warmer weather. The loss of trees left the moose exposed to human and animal predators.”

Read the full New York Times article here.