Zoonotic Infections News

As WHO increases efforts to combat the endemic tropical disease yaws, which has resurged over the past 2 decades, researchers suggested that a One Health approach involving surveillance and treatment of infected pet monkeys may be needed to eradicate the disease.

Milking camels, cleaning farm equipment, and living near animal feces and dogs were among several factors associated with an increased risk for Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus, or MERS-CoV, according to recent study findings.

Patients in Ebola treatment units of Sierra Leone were often coinfected with Malaria parasites, increasing mortality risk, a retrospective cohort study found.

Using hematophagous flies as “flying syringes” can reveal blood-borne pathogen diversity in wild animals, acting as a tool to detect emerging infectious diseases before they spread to humans, according to findings published in eLife.

Recently, researchers in China said companion animals such as dogs and cats may harbor the mcr-1 gene and pass it to humans. Now, researchers think they know where pets are acquiring the gene: in their food.

The National Science Foundation has provided Pennsylvania State University researchers with a grant of $2.35 million to study disease transmission among animals, specifically the virome within the white-footed mouse and the black-legged tick. It is hoped that this study will enable experts to better predict future outbreaks of infectious diseases within humans, according to a recent press release.

A state in Northeastern Nigeria reported its first outbreak of Lassa fever in 48 years, according to WHO.

Researchers must rethink current Zika virus control strategies and find even new ways to measure their success, according to speakers at a recent meeting on the subject.

An outbreak of the rodent-borne Seoul virus that was initially reported in Illinois and Wisconsin is suspected to have spread to at least seven other U.S. states, according to the CDC. In addition, WHO announced that three unspecified viral infections were identified among people with exposure to rats in Canada.  

Researchers detected carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, or CRE, at a farrow-to-finish operation in the United States, according to a recently published study.