Publications by authors named "E L Michael Gias"
Article Synopsis
- New Zealand is a remote South Pacific country with a unique history of species introduction, including honey bees brought in 1839 and affected by American foulbrood disease discovered in the 1870s.
- Researchers sequenced the genomes of samples from 164 New Zealand apiaries with American foulbrood, finding that 90.2% of the isolates belonged to sequence type ST18.
- Additional sequence types ST5 and ST23 were also identified, with ST5 appearing in two separate areas and ST23 only in Otago, indicating some local clustering and potential movement of hives by beekeepers.
A rickettsia-like organism, designated NZ-RLO2, was isolated from Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) farmed in the South Island, New Zealand. In vivo growth showed NZ-RLO2 was able to grow in CHSE-214, EPC, BHK-21, C6/36 and Sf21 cell lines, while Piscirickettsia salmonis LF-89 grew in all but BHK-21 and Sf21. NZ-RLO2 grew optimally in EPC at 15°C, CHSE-214 and EPC at 18°C.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe report here the draft genome sequence of a rickettsia-like organism, isolated from a New Zealand Chinook salmon farm experiencing high mortality. The genome is approximately 3 Mb in size, has a G+C content of approximately 39.2%, and is predicted to contain 2,870 coding sequences.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMonitoring an epidemic of an emerging vector-borne disease can be problematic; particularly in a country where vector-borne disease has previously had minimal impact on livestock. This paper describes methods of past and current surveillance of the Theileria-associated bovine anaemia (Ikeda; TABA) epidemic in New Zealand, and the resulting inferences made. Over the three year period of the TABA epidemic a portfolio of surveillance methods has been used: case reporting (with subsidised PCR testing), syndromic surveillance, sentinel surveillance, testing convenience samples for herd infection, as well as specific active surveillance initiatives to understand the tick vector distribution.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims: To describe the epidemiology of the epidemic of bovine anaemia associated with Theileria orientalis infection (TABA) in New Zealand between 30 August 2012 and 4 March 2014.
Methods: Blood samples and associated data were obtained from cases of TABA. The case definition for TABA was met when piroplasms were present on blood smears and the haematocrit was ≤0.