Comparative sequence analysis elucidates the evolutionary patterns of in New Mexico over thirty-two years.

Background: , a Gram-negative bacterium, is the causative agent of plague. is a zoonotic pathogen that occasionally infects humans and became endemic in the western United States after spreading from California in 1899.

Methods: To better understand evolutionary patterns in from the southwestern United States, we sequenced and analyzed 22 novel genomes from New Mexico.

Presence and stability of SARS-CoV-2 on environmental currency and money cards in Utah reveals a lack of live virus.

The highly contagious nature of SARS-CoV-2 has led to several studies on the transmission of the virus. A little studied potential fomite of great concern in the community is currency, which has been shown to harbor microbial pathogens in several studies. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses in the United States have limited the use of banknotes in favor of credit cards.