Publications by authors named "Karlis Graubics"
Background: Intramammary (IMM) ceftiofur treatment is commonly used in dairy farms to prevent mastitis, though its impact on the cattle gut microbiome and selection of antibiotic-resistant bacteria has not been elucidated. Herein, we enrolled 40 dairy (Holstein) cows at the end of the lactation phase for dry-cow therapy: 20 were treated with IMM ceftiofur (Spectramast®DC) and a non-antibiotic internal teat sealant (bismuth subnitrate) and 20 (controls) received only bismuth subnitrate. Fecal grab samples were collected before and after treatment (weeks 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, and 9) for bacterial quantification and metagenomic next-generation sequencing.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWastewater surveillance (WS), when coupled with advanced molecular techniques, offers near real-time monitoring of community-wide transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and allows assessing and mitigating COVID-19 outbreaks, by evaluating the total microbial assemblage in a community. Composite wastewater samples (24 h) were collected weekly from a manhole between December 2020 and November 2021 in Maryland, USA. RT-qPCR results showed concentrations of SARS-CoV-2 RNA recovered from wastewater samples reflected incidence of COVID-19 cases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Captive animals, compared to their wild counterparts, generally harbor imbalanced gut microbiota owing, in part, to their altered diets. This imbalance is particularly striking for folivores that fundamentally rely on gut microbiota for digestion, yet rarely receive sufficient dietary fiber in captivity. We examine the critically endangered Coquerel's sifaka (Propithecus coquereli), an anatomically specialized, rather than facultative, folivore that consumes a seasonal frugo-folivorous diet in the wild, but is provisioned predominantly with seasonal foliage and orchard vegetables in captivity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- The study aimed to explore how diet influences the gut microbiome and obesity in adult female non-human primates, comparing a Western diet and a Mediterranean diet over 31 months.
- Results indicated that diet was the primary driver of gut microbiome diversity, with distinct bacterial populations associated with body fat levels in different dietary groups.
- In the Western diet group, certain bacteria correlated with metabolic health indicators, highlighting the complex relationship between diet, gut bacteria, and obesity.