Ecology impacts the decrease of Spirochaetes and Prevotella in the fecal gut microbiota of urban humans.

Compared to the huge microbial diversity in most mammals, human gut microbiomes have lost diversity while becoming specialized for animal-based diets - especially compared to chimps, their genetically closest ancestors. The lowered microbial diversity within the gut of westernized populations has also been associated with different kinds of chronic inflammatory diseases in humans. To further deepen our knowledge on phylogenetic and ecologic impacts on human health and fitness, we established the herein presented biobank as well as its comprehensive microbiota analysis.

Introduction and spread of variegated squirrel bornavirus 1 (VSBV-1) between exotic squirrels and spill-over infections to humans in Germany.

The variegated squirrel bornavirus 1 (VSBV-1) is a recently discovered emerging viral pathogen which causes severe and eventually fatal encephalitis in humans after contact to exotic squirrels in private holdings and zoological gardens. Understanding the VSBV-1 epidemiology is crucial to develop, implement, and maintain surveillance strategies for the detection and control of animal and human infections. Based on a newly detected human encephalitis case in a zoological garden, epidemiological squirrel trade investigations and molecular phylogeny analyses of VSBV-1 with temporal and spatial resolution were conducted.

Occupation-Associated Fatal Limbic Encephalitis Caused by Variegated Squirrel Bornavirus 1, Germany, 2013.

Limbic encephalitis is commonly regarded as an autoimmune-mediated disease. However, after the recent detection of zoonotic variegated squirrel bornavirus 1 in a Prevost's squirrel (Callosciurus prevostii) in a zoo in northern Germany, we retrospectively investigated a fatal case in an autoantibody-seronegative animal caretaker who had worked at that zoo. The virus had been discovered in 2015 as the cause of a cluster of cases of fatal encephalitis among breeders of variegated squirrels (Sciurus variegatoides) in eastern Germany.