Publications by authors named "Harveen Atwal"

From July 2020 to June 2021, 248 wild house mice (Mus musculus), deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus), brown rats (Rattus norvegicus), and black rats (Rattus rattus) from Texas and Washington, USA, and British Columbia, Canada, were tested for SARS-CoV-2 exposure and infection. Two brown rats and 11 house mice were positive for neutralizing antibodies using a surrogate virus neutralization test, but negative or indeterminate with the Multiplexed Fluorometric ImmunoAssay COVID-Plex, which targets full-length spike and nuclear proteins. Oro-nasopharyngeal swabs and fecal samples tested negative by RT-qPCR, with an indeterminate fecal sample in one house mouse.

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Urban Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus) can carry various human pathogens, and may be involved in pathogen propagation and transmission to humans. From January 31-August 14, 2021, a community outbreak of Shigella flexneri serotype 2a occurred among unhoused or poorly housed people in the Downtown Eastside neighborhood of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The source could not be identified; however, patients reported contact with rats, and previous studies indicated transmission of rat-associated zoonotic pathogens among the unhoused or poorly housed residents of this neighborhood.

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Objective: This study aims to identify the most common causes of equine perinatal loss up to 7 d of age in Canada.

Animal: Equine.

Procedure: Necropsy reports from 360 equine perinatal loss cases were acquired from provincial veterinary diagnostic labs across Canada.

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Objective: The purpose of this study was to identify the most common causes of equine abortion in Canada, and to compare findings to similar reports from other countries.

Animal: Equine.

Procedure: Necropsy reports from 901 equine abortion cases were acquired from provincial veterinary diagnostic laboratories across Canada.

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is a zoonotic, protozoan parasite that causes potentially life-threatening diarrhea in the host and can be transmitted via the fecal-oral route. can infect cattle and may be detected in their feces using a variety of tests. We compared the level of agreement, ease of procedure, and cost among PCR, lateral flow immunoassay, fluorescent antibody, and Kinyoun acid-fast stain direct smear tests.

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