Evaluating noninvasive methods for estimating cestode prevalence in a wild carnivore population.

Helminth infections are cryptic and can be difficult to study in wildlife species. Helminth research in wildlife hosts has historically required invasive animal handling and necropsy, while results from noninvasive parasite research, like scat analysis, may not be possible at the helminth species or individual host levels. To increase the utility of noninvasive sampling, individual hosts can be identified by applying molecular methods.

Mycobiome Traits Associated with Disease Tolerance Predict Many Western North American Bat Species Will Be Susceptible to White-Nose Syndrome.

White-nose syndrome (WNS), a fungal disease that has caused catastrophic population declines of bats in eastern North America, is rapidly spreading across the continent and now threatens previously unexposed bat species in western North America. The causal agent of WNS, the fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans, can infect many species of hibernating bats, but susceptibility to WNS varies by host species. We previously reported that certain traits of the skin microbiome, particularly yeast diversity and abundance, of bat species in eastern North America are strongly associated with resistance to WNS.

Soil Reservoir Dynamics of , the Causative Agent of Snake Fungal Disease.

Wildlife diseases pose an ever-growing threat to global biodiversity. Understanding how wildlife pathogens are distributed in the environment and the ability of pathogens to form environmental reservoirs is critical to understanding and predicting disease dynamics within host populations. Snake fungal disease (SFD) is an emerging conservation threat to North American snake populations.

A novel host-adapted strain of Salmonella Typhimurium causes renal disease in olive ridley turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea) in the Pacific.

Salmonella spp. are frequently shed by wildlife including turtles, but S. enterica subsp.

Keeping the Heat on for Children's Health: A Successful Medical-Legal Partnership Initiative to Prevent Utility Shutoffs in Vulnerable Children.

Objective: Energy insecurity may result in adverse consequences for children's health, particularly for children with special health needs or chronic health conditions. We aimed to determine whether a multimodal intervention addressing energy insecurity within the framework of a medical-legal partnership (MLP) resulted in an increase in the provision of certifications of medical need for utility coverage in an inner city academic primary care practice.

Methods: Working within a medical-legal partnership, we standardized criteria for providers approving medical need utility certification requests.

Kids Safe and Smokefree (KiSS): a randomized controlled trial of a multilevel intervention to reduce secondhand tobacco smoke exposure in children.

Background: Secondhand smoke exposure (SHSe) harms children's health, yet effective interventions to reduce child SHSe in the home and car have proven difficult to operationalize in pediatric practice. A multilevel intervention combining pediatric healthcare providers' advice with behavioral counseling and navigation to pharmacological cessation aids may improve SHSe control in pediatric populations.

Methods/design: This trial uses a randomized, two-group design with three measurement periods: pre-intervention, end of treatment and 12-month follow-up.

The Children's Advocacy Project of Philadelphia's Cap4Kids survey: an innovative tool for pediatrician--community-based organization collaboration.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the online advocacy resource tool, the Children's Advocacy Project of Philadelphia (Cap4Kids), is effective in helping pediatrics residents and pediatricians learn more about community-based organizations (CBOs). This study used an online survey of Cap4Kids Listserv members and analyzed the responses by subgroups. Three hundred twenty-seven Listserv members responded to this survey.