Division of Epidemiology

Aim To assess the surface decontamination potential of diode laser, with different wavelengths, with or without the aid of photodynamic therapy (PDT) on two different implant surfaces. Material and Methods Fresh porcine ribs were cut in blocks and sterilized. Eleven sterile implants per group were placed into the blocks. A standardized circumferential bony defect was created around the implant body. Defects were inoculated with 3 µL of S. sanguinis. Blocks were incubated in a 5% CO2, 37 °C atmosphere for 24hours, then the implants were subjected to different treatment protocols: 810nm or 980nm diode laser with or without PDT plus 3 control groups, one per surface characteristics and a mixed one coated with PDT dye (indocyanine green), were not treated, for a total of 11 groups. The laser tip was placed into the defects for 30 seconds set at 1.0W continuos in an up-and-down motion. The defects were rinsed with TSB and fluid plated. Implants were retrieved and acquired media plated. Colony forming units (CFU) were counted 48 hours after incubation. Results There is a clear evidence that both laser's wavelength minimize the CFU counts in both type of surfaces, with the difference being statistically significant. The use of PDT gives contradicting results with a wide range of CFUs total count. However when plating derived from vortexing the implants there is a remarkable effect of the use of cardiogreen. Conclusion The use of diode lasers in treatment of peri-implantitis is efficacious in this ex-vivo study regardless of the surface roughness.

At a thoroughbred equine breeding farm near Hissar (Haryana), three mares aborted in their seventh month of pregnancy. The vaginal swabs of all aborted mares, and stomach contents, heart blood, liver, spleen and placenta of aborted fetuses yielded pure culture of Aeromonas hydrophila. In addition, A. hydrophila was also isolated from the vaginal swabs of three repeat breeding mares and faecal sample of a diarrheic foal. The source of infection was possibly water supply as all the water samples collected from taps, mother tank and storage tank were found to be positive for A. hydrophila. The antibiogram of all the isolates was similar showing resistance to ampicillin, carbenicillin, gentamicin, kanamycin and amikacin but sensitive to chloramphenicol, ciprofloxacin, cefuroxime, ceftriaxone, cotrimoxazole, cotrimazine, nitrofurantoin, streptomycin and tetracycline. All the 20 sera samples collected from three aborted and three repeat breeding, and eight in-contact mares, a diarrheic foal, three cows and two male buffaloes maintained at the same farm contained antibodies against A. hydrophila with titres ranging from 80 to 640. The water supply was instantly chlorinated using 0.05% sodium hypochlorite for three consecutive days and all the culturally positive mares were treated with intravaginal administration of 1 g ciprofloxacin, while the foal was given nitrofurantoin for three days. After one month, A. hydrophila could not be isolated either from mares or from their environment and antibody titre in all the seropositive animals showed a declining trend. Later, all the aborted and repeat breeding mares were confirmed to be pregnant. Thus, the present study indicated that water-borne A. hydrophila might be associated with equine abortions and infertility, and diarrhea in newborn foals.

The present study on defined double deletion (DaroADhtrA) mutant (S30) of Salmonella enterica serovar Abortusequi evaluated it for safety, immunogenicity, and efficacy as a vaccine candidate in equids. The candidate strain was found safe in equids (foals, male and female horses and donkeys, and pregnant and nonpregnant mares) and induced good humoral and cell-mediated immunity on administration through oral route. The strain was not excreted in feces of vaccinated animals. The vaccine candidate administered orally (1 Â 10 11 cfu per animal) protected mares even after 180 days of inoculation against abortion on challenge with wild-type S. Abortusequi strain whereas in nonvaccinated control, all mares aborted. The vaccination in infertile mares resulted in regaining of fertility in 67%-80% thoroughbred mares at two different breeding farms. Further, the humoral immunity was transferred to foals from vaccinated mothers through colostrum, but no placental transfer was evident. Thus, the vaccine under study may be recommended for use in equids to control S. Abortusequi infection-associated abortions and also to enhance fertility of temporarily infertile mares in endemic areas.

Dynamics of persistence of Salmonella enterica subspecies enterica serovar Typhimurium (S. Typhimurium), a common food-and waterborne zoonotic serovar, on cowpea (Vigna unguiculata variety sinensis), a fodder and green vegetable plant, were studied. The findings revealed that S. Typhimurium not only reduced germination of cowpea seed (P < 0.01), but also caused defects in sprouts (P < 0.02). S. Typhimurium inoculation on seeds before sowing had a more pronounced effect (P < 0.01; i.e., loss in germination and appearance of defective sprouts) than sowing seeds in S. Typhimurium-inoculated soil. S. Typhimurium persisted in saplings and adult plants up to 45 days of plant age and up to 60 days in hay. The cowpea plants grown in sterile Salmonella-free soil did not support colonization of S. Typhimurium in different parts. A reduction in the population of Salmonella appeared as early as on the fifth day and decreased with advancing plant age. At 21 days of age, the cowpea plants had no Salmonella in their aerial parts and were free of the pathogen within 3 h of inoculation. Salmonella persisted in stumps of the plants throughout the observation, irrespective of age of the plants at the time of inoculation. The study revealed the persistence and the phytopathogenic potential of Salmonella on cowpea.

Flavobacterium columnare (FC) and Myxobacterium sp. recorded persistently associated in fish hatchery and culture system of Himalayan and Sub - Himalayan regions were found to be pathogenic. The pH and salinity played a significant role on the pathogenicity of these potent pathogens in case of Clarias batrachus and Heteropneustes fossilis. LD50 value of FC was 10(4.5) CFU in both the fishes and those of Myxobacterium sp it was 10(6) CFU ml(-1) fish(-1). Fish challenged with F. columnare and Myxobacterium sp. (@ 0.2 ml fish(-1)) individually consisting 10(5-6) cfu ml(-1) exhibited explicit symptoms of columnaris disease and marked with ulceration and saddle back lesion on the dorsal side of body. Maximum reisolation of inoculated bacteria was recorded at pH 7.0 and 7.5 and at 0.0-0.5 (F. columnare) and 0.0-1.0% (Myxobacterium sp.) salinity. Foregoing results elucidated that F. columnare was more sensitive to salinity in comparison to Myxobacterium sp. and their pathogenicity signific...

From 194 faecal dropping samples of common house geckos collected from offices (60), houses (88), integrated farm units (IFS,18) and hostels, guest houses, and dining rooms of different canteen/mess (HGM, 28), 326 bacterial isolates of enteric bacteria belonging to 17 genera and 34 species were detected. Escherichia coli were the most frequently (39) isolated followed by Citrobacter freundii (33), Klebsiella pneumonia (27), Salmonella indica (12), Enterobacter gergoviae (12), and Ent. agglomerans (11). Other important bacteria isolated from gecko droppings were Listonella damsela (2), Raoultella terrigena (3), S. salamae (2), S. houtenae (3), Edwardsiella tarda (4), Edwardsiella hoshinae (1), and Klebsiella oxytoca (2). Of the 223 isolates tested for antimicrobial drug sensitivity, 27 (12.1%) had multiple drug resistance (MDR). None of the salmonellae or edwardsiellae had MDR however, MDR strains were significantly more common among Escherichia spp. (P = 1.9 × 10(-5)) and isolates f...

Bordetella bronchisepticainfection causing atrophic rhinitis in pigs is reported from almost all countries. In the present study, occurrence ofBordetellainfection in apparently healthy pigs was determined in 392 pigs sampled to collect 358 serum samples and 316 nasal swabs from Northern India by conventional bacterioscopy, detection of antigen with multiplex polymerase chain reaction (mPCR), and detection of antibodies with microagglutination test (MAT) and enzyme linked immune-sorbent assay (ELISA).Bordetella bronchisepticacould be isolated from six (1.92%) nasal swabs. Although isolates varied significantly in their antimicrobial sensitivity, they had similar plasmid profile. The genus specific and species specific amplicons were detected from 8.2% and 4.4% nasal swabs using mPCR withalcgene (genus specific) andflagene andfim2 gene (species specific) primers, respectively. Observations revealed that there may be other bordetellae infecting pigs because about 50% of the samples pos...

K ennel cough is a multi-etiological disease and Bordetella bronchiseptica is the main etiology in dogs (Keil and Fenwick, 1998). Bordetella affects dogs of all the age groups (Appel et al., 1987; Ford, 2006) and has a zoonotic aspect too (Woolfrey et al., 1991) affecting immunocompromised (Bauwens et al., 1992) as well as healthy humans (Lo et al., 2001). Many conventional bacteriological methods, immunological (agglutination, microagglutination and enzyme linked immunosobant assay) and molecular tools (polymerase chain reaction, PCR; real time PCR) have been used to detect Bordetella infection in animals. However, diagnosis of bordetellosis is a problem because of slow growing and fastidious nature of the pathogen and contaminants in the clinical samples (

Isolation of multiple drug resistant (MDR) bacteria with potential of extended spectrum βlactamases (ESBL) and carbapenemase production from vaginal swabs of apparently healthy swamp buffaloes is reported for the first time. A total of 57 bacterial isolates belonging to 18 species were isolated from vaginal swabs of apparently healthy swamp buffaloes. Escherichia coli was the most common bacteria isolated from 68% samples followed by Enterobacter agglomerans (32%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (16%), Erwinia amylovora (16%), Aeromonas media (12%), Alkaligenes denitrificans (12%) and Aeromonas hydrophila (8%). A total of 35.1 % isolates had MDR and 14 isolates were phenotypically confirmed as producer of crabapenemase or ESBL. Resistance to ampicillin was the most common (68.4%) followed by resistance to ceftazidime (33.3%), nitrofurantoin (31.6%) and cotrimoxazole (21.1%). Resistance to imipenem, aztreonam and ceftazidime + clavulanic acid was detected in 5, 5 and 9 isolates, respectively. The study conclude that vagina of swamp buffaloes may carry several microbes having multiple drug resistance without any apparent illness. All copyrights reserved to Nexus® academic publishers

Emergence of antimicrobial drug resistance in bacteria is widely explored but still ill understood. Antibiotic resistance is a complex phenomenon due to multiple ways of its acquisition, mechanism of action and spread. Antibiotic resistance may be innate, present in microbes due to their inherent inbuilt metabolic and structural components. Other type of innate resistance is one which has been detected in strains isolated even before the era of the use of any antibiotics and often specific with bacterium. The most important and problematic is the acquired drug resistance. It spread rapidly with the use of antimicrobials in one or other realm of ecosystem. Inactivation of antimicrobials occurs by some common mechanism such as drug inactivation/degradation by bacterial enzymes or alteration in the bacterial targets or expulsion of drug out of the bacterial cells (efflux) or by preventing the entry of drug into bacterium. Here some important aspects of mechanism of antimicrobial drug resistance and its emergence are discussed.

Integrated farming is popular in India but little is understood about circulation of multi-host pathogens under the emerging farming systems (IFS). Circulation of Edwardsiella a pathogen of public health importance has been studied in IFS. Gill swabs of fish (8), pond water (8), rectal swabs of pig (36) and cloacal swabs of duck (32) from an IFS and 24 samples each of rectal swabs of pigs and cloacal swabs of ducks from the down colony (300 m on down side from the farm) were analyzed for the presence of edwardsiellae and heterogeneity among the isolates. A total of 24 E. tarda and 6 E. hoshinae were isolated. No E. hoshinae was isolated from the IFS. We isolated both E. tarda and E. hoshinae from ducks but no E. tarda in down colony pigs. Though 55% E. tarda from the IFS were multi-drug-resistant (MDR) type, no MDR strain was detected in the down colony. Plasmid(s) were detected in E. tarda but not in E. hoshinae isolates. The study concluded that E. tarda may be detected in all com...

Bacteria are commonly reported in eggs and transovarial transfer is known in birds but little is known about geckos. In the present study 72% of gecko eggs had bacteria. Citrobacter freundii (7) were the most commonly isolated bacteria followed by Klebsiella pneumoniae (6), C. amalonaticus (4), Enterococcus casselifalvus (3) and Pragia fontium (3). Bacillus licheniformis, Escherichia coli, Enterococcus hirae and Edwardsiella tarda were isolated from two eggs each while C. diversus, Escherichia fergusonii, Enterococcus dispar, Enterobacter agglomerans, Erwinia ananas, Ewingella americana, Klebsiella oxytoca, Proteus penneri, Salmonella enterica ssp. indica, S. enterica ssp. salamae and Staphylococcus aureus were isolated from one egg each. All types of bacteria detected in eggs except B. licheniformis were also detected with similar antibiogram in ova, ovary, liver and intestinal contents of geckos showing good correlation (r, 0.9) among bacteria detected in eggs and ova. Of the 30 o...

One hundred thirty one samples (nasal, faecal, soil, tissue from dead foal) were tested for presence of Rhodococcus equi. These samples included 58 nasal swabs including 45 from foals with respiratory problem and 13 from in contact apparently healthy foals. Faecal samples were 54 including 41 from foals with respiratory problem and 13 from in contact apparently healthy foals. Faecal and nasal samples were from same foals, soil samples from infected premises were 15, besides tissues from foals (4) which died due to respiratory problems. Fourteen isolates of Rhodococcus equi were obtained from foals with respiratory problems, which were subjected to in vitro antibiotic sensitivity testing to 17 antimicrobial agents which were amoxycillin, gentamycin, ampicillin, trimethoprim, chloramphenicol, sulphadiazine, cloxacin, oxytetracycline, amikacin, streptomycin, cotrimoxazole, cephalexin, kanamycin erythromycin, ciprofloxacin, neomycin and rifampicin. All the isolates were found sensitive ...

The present study on antigenic competition among somatic &#39;O&#39; antigens of different Salmonella groups (A, B, C1, C2, D and E1) in mares revealed that the immune response to most of the antigens was not (A, B, C2) or little (C1, D) affected by antigenic competition. However, E1 group antigen, which induced high antibody titres (Avg. 12967.3) when given alone, produced almost 3.5 log2 lower antibody titres on giving with other antigens, indicating the antigenic competition among some Salmonella group antigens. The antigenic competition varied for different antigens even of the similar chemical nature. Therefore, antigens belonging to different somatic groups should not be given together for the purpose of raising polyvalent serum or for immunization using multivalent Salmonella vaccines prepared from strains of different &#39;O&#39; groups revealing antigenic competition.

Total replacement of normal maize with quality protein maize (QPM) in young mithun (Bos frontalis) diet had no significant (p &gt;0.5) effect on antibody response against Salmonella enterica ssp. enterica ser Typhimurium (S. Typhimurium). Therefore it may be recommended that there is no added advantage of feeding QPM to mithun and probably to other ruminants with reference to immune response.

Carbapenems are beta (β)-lactam antibiotics active against wide range of bacteria. Carbapenem resistance may be outcome of efflux pump activation, alteration in protein binding proteins, production of carbapenemases which degrade carbapenems. There are number of bacteria producing different types of carbapenemases like NDM (Enterobacteriaceae), IMP (Pseudomonas aeruginosa), IMI (Enterobacter cloacae), KPC (Klebsiella pneumonia), OXA-23, OXA-24/40, OXA-58-type (Acinetobacter baumannii), VIM (Acinetobacter baumannii) etc. Carbapenem resistance is emerging throughout the world due to interspecies transfer of genetic elements carrying genes for carbapenemase production. It is very difficult to control spread of resistant strains because of the continuous threshold of selection present in forms of presence of carbapenems in environment created through wide spread clinical use. To control infection of carbapenem resistant bacteria there are limited options available for treatment. Many a time carbapenem resistant bacteria show pan-resistance and such bacterial infection become life-threatening and cannot be treated with available last resort antibiotics like polymin B, tigecyclin and colistin. Infection of carbapenem resistant bacteria can be controlled using two or more antibiotics or antibiotic+ herbal drug combination or herbal drugs like (carvacrol, cinnamon, holy-basil oil, lemon grass oil) etc. The herbal drugs may be used as first line of treatment against carbapenem resistant bacteria instead of antibiotics. But, how? It is still not very lucid. Besides it, probiotics and homeopathic therapy has also been recommended with no sufficient data to establish their efficacy.

Sera samples (575) were collected from 17 breeds of apparently healthy dogs from different parts of the country and tested for the presence of antibodies against cytotoxin-I antigen ELISA from S. Weltevreden (BM1613) to know the seroprevalence of salmonellosis. The overall seroprevalence was 58.08%. Place-wise the highest seroprevalence was in sera samples collected from Dehradun (92.00%), while breed-wise maximum sera samples of Labrador (81.58%) showed the presence of anti-cytotoxin-I antibodies of salmonella. The difference of seroprevalence of salmonellosis between 2 sexes was nonsignificant and the age group of 7-9 years and above showed the highest serprevalence (63.37%). Our results showed a high seroprevalence of salmonellosis in dogs, which indicates a serious threat to human health.

Integrated farming is popular in India but little is understood about circulation of multi-host pathogens under the emerging farming systems (IFS). Circulation of Edwardsiella a pathogen of public health importance has been studied in IFS. Gill swabs of fish (8), pond water (8), rectal swabs of pig (36) and cloacal swabs of duck (32) from an IFS and 24 samples each of rectal swabs of pigs and cloacal swabs of ducks from the down colony (300 m on down side from the farm) were analyzed for the presence of edwardsiellae and heterogeneity among the isolates. A total of 24 E. tarda and 6 E. hoshinae were isolated. No E. hoshinae was isolated from the IFS. We isolated both E. tarda and E. hoshinae from ducks but no E. tarda in down colony pigs. Though 55% E. tarda from the IFS were multi-drug-resistant (MDR) type, no MDR strain was detected in the down colony. Plasmid(s) were detected in E. tarda but not in E. hoshinae isolates. The study concluded that E. tarda may be detected in all components of the IFS but E. tarda from different sources may not be of similar type.

Recent emergence of zoonotic-parasitic diseases in humans are due to evolution of microbes or parasites with alterations of host ranges, vector system, infectivity, virulence and/or re-occurrence of an unreported infection. Although, zoonotic parasitic diseases of companion animal origin are very familiar and deliberately studied in American and European countries, they are under prioritized areas of human health concern in developing countries like India. Circumstances prevailing in developing countries are favourable for easy and diffuse transmission and surfacing of zoonotic parasitic infections viz. toxoplasmosis, giardiasis, toxacariasis, echinoccosis, leishmaniasis, etc. However, with the implementations of personal hygiene and sanitary measures, appearance and spread of such zoonotic parasitic infections from companion animals can be prevented. Pet owners must be educated in a right way about the potential zoonotic risks, mode of transmission of these infections from their pets. It has been concluded that veterinarians need to play an immense role in educating and creating awareness on transmission and prevention of companion animal zoonoses in humans. This review discusses about the common parasitic zoonoses of companion animals. The primary focus of this review is mostly about canine and feline parasitic zoonoses that were the major threat in the developing nations.