Impact of microbial findings on plastic reconstructive surgery outcomes in patients with deep sternal wound infection after cardiac surgery.

Deep sternal wound infection (DSWI) is a life threatening complication after cardiac surgery. In severe cases, flaps are needed to cover the wound. However, it is controversial if an aseptic environment is necessary at the time of wound closure.

Evaluating the occurrence of host-specific , general fecal indicators, and bacterial pathogens in a mixed-use watershed.

Fecal contamination of water is very common, and, in the United States, prevention is complicated by the colossal span of waterways (>3.5 million miles), heterogeneous sources of pollution, and competing interests in water monitoring. The focus of this study was the Upper Sugar Creek Watershed, a mixed-use watershed with many headwater streams and one of the most contaminated waterways in Ohio.

Genetic markers for rapid PCR-based identification of gull, Canada goose, duck, and chicken fecal contamination in water.

Avian feces contaminate waterways but contribute fewer human pathogens than human sources. Rapid identification and quantification of avian contamination would therefore be useful to prevent overestimation of human health risk. We used subtractive hybridization of PCR-amplified gull fecal 16S RNA genes to identify avian-specific fecal rRNA gene sequences.

Relative decay of Bacteroidales microbial source tracking markers and cultivated Escherichia coli in freshwater microcosms.

Fecal indicator bacteria (FIB), commonly used to regulate sanitary water quality, cannot discriminate among sources of contamination. The use of alternative quantitative PCR (qPCR) methods for monitoring fecal contamination or microbial source tracking requires an understanding of relationships with cultivated FIB, as contamination ages under various conditions in the environment. In this study, the decay rates of three Bacteroidales 16S rRNA gene markers (AllBac for general contamination and qHF183 and BacHum for human-associated contamination) were compared with the decay rate of cultivated Escherichia coli in river water microcosms spiked with human wastewater.

Evaluation of two spike-and-recovery controls for assessment of extraction efficiency in microbial source tracking studies.

Quantitative PCR (qPCR), applied to complex environmental samples such as water, wastewater, and feces, is susceptible to methodological and sample related biases. In this study, we evaluated two exogenous DNA spike-and-recovery controls as proxies for recovery efficiency of Bacteroidales 16S rDNA gene sequences (AllBac and qHF183) that are used for microbial source tracking (MST) in river water. Two controls--(1) the plant pathogen Pantoea stewartii, carrying the chromosomal target gene cpsD, and (2) Escherichia coli, carrying the plasmid-borne target gene DsRed2--were added to raw water samples immediately prior to concentration and DNA extraction for qPCR.

Host distributions of uncultivated fecal Bacteroidales bacteria reveal genetic markers for fecal source identification.

The purpose of this study was to examine host distribution patterns among fecal bacteria in the order Bacteroidales, with the goal of using endemic sequences as markers for fecal source identification in aquatic environments. We analyzed Bacteroidales 16S rRNA gene sequences from the feces of eight hosts: human, bovine, pig, horse, dog, cat, gull, and elk. Recovered sequences did not match database sequences, indicating high levels of uncultivated diversity.

Microplate subtractive hybridization to enrich for bacteroidales genetic markers for fecal source identification.

The ability to identify sources of fecal pollution plays a key role in the analysis of human health risk and the implementation of water resource management strategies. One approach to this problem involves the identification of bacterial lineages or gene sequences that are found exclusively in a particular host species or group. We used subtractive hybridization to enrich for target host-specific fecal Bacteroidales rRNA gene fragments that were different from those of very closely related reference (subtracter) host sources.

A comparative study of culture-independent, library-independent genotypic methods of fecal source tracking.

Culture-independent fecal source tracking methods have many potential advantages over library-dependent, isolate-culture methods, but they have been subjected to limited testing. The purpose of this study was to compare culture-independent, library-independent methods of fecal source tracking. Five laboratories analysed identical sets of aqueous samples that contained one or more of the following sources: sewage, human feces, dog feces, cattle feces and gull feces.

Rapid estimation of numbers of fecal Bacteroidetes by use of a quantitative PCR assay for 16S rRNA genes.

Assessment of health risk associated with fecal pollution requires a reliable fecal indicator and a rapid quantification method. We report the development of a Taq nuclease assay for enumeration of 16S rRNA genes of Bacteroidetes. Sensitivity and correlation with standard fecal indicators provide experimental evidence for application of the assay in monitoring fecal pollution.