Research

Detección del virus de la Hepatitis E en Fauna Salvaje de la Comunidad de Madrid

Degree Final Project defended by Laura Salgado Muro

Educating in antimicrobial resistance awareness: adaptation of the Small World Initiative program to service-learning

FEMS Microbiology Letters publish this investigation article

The Small World Initiative (SWI) is a consolidated and successful education program rooted in the USA that tackles the antibiotic crisis by a crowdsourcing strategy. Based on active learning, it challenges young students to discover novel bioactive-producing microorganisms form environmental soil samples. Besides its pedagogical efficiency to impart Microbiology contents in academic curricula, SWI promotes vocations on research and development in Experimental Sciences and, at the same time, disseminates the antibiotic awareness guidelines of the World Health Organization (WHO). We have adapted… Leer más

Human Pasteurella multocida Infection with Likely Zoonotic Transmission from a Pet Dog, Spain

Investigation published in Emerging Infectious Diseases

We report a case of urinary tract infection caused by an unusual genotype (sequence type 211) of Pasteurella multocida associated with human infection. Molecular genetic analysis of P. multocida isolates obtained from the human patient and his pet strongly suggests a zoonotic transmission of this bacterium… Leer más

Impact of piglet oral vaccination against tuberculosis in endemic free-ranging wild boar populations

Investigation published in Preventive Veterinary Medicine

The Eurasian wild boar (Sus scrofa) is the main wild reservoir of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex in Mediterranean woodlands and a key risk factor for cattle tuberculosis (TB) breakdowns. Wild boar vaccination therefore has the potential to be a valuable tool for TB control. We tested two orally delivered vaccines, heat-inactivated Mycobacterium bovis (IV) and BCG, in four sites (two per vaccine type: one Managed and one Natural or unmanaged) during four years. TB was also monitored in 15 unvaccinated sites (spatial control), as well as in all sites from one year prior to intervention (… Leer más

Evaluation of the use of a needle-free injection syringe as a cause of non-specific reactions in the intradermal tuberculin test used for the diagnosis of bovine tuberculosis

Investigation article published in Research in Veterinary Science

The objective of the study was to elucidate whether the use of the needle-free Dermojet syringe, which is based on a high pressure inoculation and is used to inject tuberculin in cattle in several countries, may, in itself, cause skin reactions that can be interpreted as positive reactions to the intradermal tests that are not, in fact, related to the real infection status of the animals. Forty-four cattle from an officially tuberculosis-free (OTF) herd were selected, and four single intradermal tuberculin (SIT) tests were performed on each animal, two on each side of the neck. Three differen… Leer más

Temporal analysis of the interference caused by paratuberculosis vaccination on the tuberculosis diagnostic tests in goats

Investigation article published in Preventive Veterinary Medicine

Vaccination against paratuberculosis (PTB) in goats is a cost-effective control strategy, and is also effective as regards preventing the onset of clinical cases. However, it causes interference in the diagnostic tests used in the control of tuberculosis (TB). A group of 99 goats from a herd with no history of TB or PTB infection was vaccinated against PTB at seven months of age. They then underwent consecutive intradermal tests [single (SIT) and comparative (CIT) intradermal tuberculin tests), interferon-gamma release assays (IGRA) and two serological tests (p22_CE and DR-ELISA) every three m… Leer más

Testing the Role of Multicopy Plasmids in the Evolution of Antibiotic Resistance

Journal of visualized experiments : JoVE publish this investigation article

Multicopy plasmids are extremely abundant in prokaryotes but their role in bacterial evolution remains poorly understood. We recently showed that the increase in gene copy number per cell provided by multicopy plasmids could accelerate the evolution of plasmid-encoded genes. In this work, we present an experimental system to test the ability of multicopy plasmids to promote gene evolution. Using simple molecular biology methods, we constructed a model system where an antibiotic resistance gene can be inserted into Escherichia coli MG1655, either in the chromosome or on a multicopy plasmid. We … Leer más

The use of serological tests in combination with the intradermal tuberculin test maximizes the detection of tuberculosis infected goats

Veterinary Immunology and Immunopathology publish this investigation article

The diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB) in goats is based mainly on the single and comparative intradermal tuberculin (SIT and CIT) tests and, exceptionally, on the interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) assay, however they are not perfect in terms of sensitivity and specificity. Nevertheless, various serological assays that provide a potential cost-effective approach for the control of TB are also available or under development, and a variety of results have been reported regarding the ability of these tests to detect infected animals, particularly in the early stages of infection. In the present study, S… Leer más

Streptococcus penaeicida sp. nov., isolated from a diseased farmed Pacific white shrimp (Penaeus vannamei)

Investigation published in International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology

Strain CAIM 1838T, isolated from the hepatopancreas of a cultured diseased Pacific white shrimp (Penaeusvannamei), was subjected to characterization by a polyphasic taxonomic approach. On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, strain CAIM 1838T was most closely related to Streptococcus bovimastitidis 99.3 % and to other species of the Pyogenes clade of Streptococcus with lower similarity values. Average nucleotide identity values and the genome-to-genome distance of strain CAIM 1838T, as compared with the type strains, confirmed the separate species status with closely related spe… Leer más

Plasmids carrying antimicrobial resistance genes in Enterobacteriaceae

Investigation published in The Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy

Bacterial antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is constantly evolving and horizontal gene transfer through plasmids plays a major role. The identification of plasmid characteristics and their association with different bacterial hosts provides crucial knowledge that is essential to understand the contribution of plasmids to the transmission of AMR determinants. Molecular identification of plasmid and strain genotypes elicits a distinction between spread of AMR genes by plasmids and dissemination of these genes by spread of bacterial clones. For this reason several methods are used to type the plasmi… Leer más