Microbiome diversity and zoonotic bacterial pathogen prevalence in Peromyscus mice from agricultural landscapes and synanthropic habitat.

Rodents are key reservoirs of zoonotic pathogens and play an important role in disease transmission to humans. Importantly, anthropogenic land-use change has been found to increase the abundance of rodents that thrive in human-built environments (synanthropic rodents), particularly rodent reservoirs of zoonotic disease. Anthropogenic environments also affect the microbiome of synanthropic wildlife, influencing wildlife health and potentially introducing novel pathogens.

Metagenomic surveillance for bacterial tick-borne pathogens using nanopore adaptive sampling.

Technological and computational advancements in the fields of genomics and bioinformatics are providing exciting new opportunities for pathogen discovery and genomic surveillance. In particular, single-molecule nucleotide sequence data originating from Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) sequencing platforms can be bioinformatically leveraged, in real-time, for enhanced biosurveillance of a vast array of zoonoses. The recently released nanopore adaptive sampling (NAS) strategy facilitates immediate mapping of individual nucleotide molecules to a given reference as each molecule is being sequenced.

The genome of the soybean gall midge (Resseliella maxima).

The cecidomyiid fly, soybean gall midge, Resseliella maxima Gagné, is a recently discovered insect that feeds on soybean plants in the Midwestern United States. R. maxima larvae feed on soybean stems that may induce plant death and can cause considerable yield losses, making it an important agricultural pest.

The Genome of the Soybean Gall Midge ( ).

The cecidomyiid fly, soybean gall midge, Gagné, is a recently discovered insect that feeds on soybean plants in the Midwest US. larvae feed on soybean stems which may induce plant death and can cause considerable yield losses, making it an important agricultural pest. From three pools of 50 adults each, we used long-read nanopore sequencing to assemble a reference genome.

Nanopore adaptive sampling for targeted mitochondrial genome sequencing and bloodmeal identification in hematophagous insects.

Background: Blood-feeding insects are important vectors for an array of zoonotic pathogens. While previous efforts toward generating molecular resources have largely focused on major vectors of global medical and veterinary importance, molecular data across a large number of hematophagous insect taxa remain limited. Advancements in long-read sequencing technologies and associated bioinformatic pipelines provide new opportunities for targeted sequencing of insect mitochondrial (mt) genomes.

Nanopore-Based Surveillance of Zoonotic Bacterial Pathogens in Farm-Dwelling Peridomestic Rodents.

The effective control of rodent populations on farms is crucial for food safety, as rodents are reservoirs and vectors for several zoonotic pathogens. Clear links have been identified between rodents and farm-level outbreaks of pathogens throughout Europe and Asia; however, comparatively little research has been devoted to studying the rodent-agricultural interface in the USA. Here, we address this knowledge gap by metabarcoding bacterial communities of rodent pests collected from Minnesota and Wisconsin food animal farms.

Cutaneous Leishmaniasis in a Recreational Cave Diver After Travel to México.

Cutaneous Leishmaniasis due to is a common cause of New World protozoal infections endemic to southern Mexico and now the United States (US). We present a case of a 72-year-old male who became infected with cutaneous while participating in numerous diving excursions in the flooded limestone caves, commonly referred to as in the Yucatán Peninsula. This unique case of adventure tourism highlights cave diving in endemic regions of leishmaniasis as a possible new risk factor for the acquisition of this disease.

An Atypical Case of Autochthonous Cutaneous Leishmaniasis Associated with Naturally Infected Phlebotomine Sand Flies in Texas, United States.

In the United States, phlebotomine sand flies carrying () are endemic along the southern border. However, relatively little is known about the enzootic and zoonotic transmission of () within the United States, and autochthonous cases of the consequent disease are rarely reported. We investigated an atypical case of cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) caused by () in a patient from central Texas which did not respond to a typical antileishmanial chemotherapy.

Genetic evidence of enzootic leishmaniasis in a stray canine and Texas mouse from sites in west and central Texas.

We detected Leishmania mexicana in skin biopsies taken from a stray canine (Canis familiaris) and Texas mouse (Peromyscus attwateri) at two ecologically disparate sites in west and central Texas using polymerase chain reaction (PCR). A single PCR-positive dog was identified from a sample of 96 stray canines and was collected in a peri-urban area in El Paso County, Texas. The PCR-positive P.