Objectives: The burden of acute gastrointestinal illness (AGI) attributable to natural water recreation in Canada is unknown. Understanding the burden can help prioritize public health interventions and resource allocation for reduction of disease. Our objectives were to compile estimates of AGI burden associated with natural water recreation, identify knowledge gaps in water recreation epidemiology, and evaluate methods applicable for developing a burden estimate for Canada.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: The burden of disease associated with acute gastrointestinal illness (AGI) in Canada is estimated to be ~ 20 million cases/year. One known risk factor for developing AGI is recreation in freshwater bodies such as lakes. The proportion of cases attributable to freshwater recreation in Canada, however, is currently unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInappropriate antibiotic use is a key driver of antibiotic resistance and one that can be mitigated through stewardship. A better understanding of current prescribing practices is needed to develop successful stewardship efforts. This study aims to identify factors that are associated with human cases of enteric illness receiving an antibiotic prescription.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe objectives of this research were to assess ingested plastics and accumulated heavy metals in four urban gull species. Additionally, the relationships between ingested plastics and selected demographic and health metrics were assessed. Between 2020-2021 during the non-breeding seasons, 105 gulls (46 American herring gulls (HERG, Larus argentatus smithsonianus), 39 great black-backed gulls (GBBG, Larus marinus), 16 Iceland gulls (Larus glaucoides), 4 glaucous gulls (Larus hyperboreus)) were killed at a landfill in coastal Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, as part of separate, permitted kill-to-scare operations related to aircraft safety.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPlastic ingestion presents many potential avenues of risk for wildlife. Understanding which species and environments are most exposed to plastic pollution is a critical first step in investigating the One Health implications of plastic exposure. The objectives of this study were the following: 1) Utilize necropsy as part of ongoing passive disease surveillance to investigate ingested mesoplastics in birds collected in Ontario and Nunavut, and examine the relationships between bird-level factors and ingested debris; 2) evaluate microplastic ingestion compared to ingested mesodebris in raptors; and 3) identify potential sentinel species for plastic pollution monitoring in understudied freshwater and terrestrial (inland) environments.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Assoc Med Microbiol Infect Dis Can
November 2023
Introduction: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a challenge to modern medicine. Interventions have been applied worldwide to tackle AMR, but these actions are often not reported to peers or published, leading to important knowledge gaps about what actions are being taken. Understanding factors that influence the implementation of AMR interventions and what factors are relevant in low-middle-income countries (LMICs) and high-income countries (HICs) were the key objectives of this exploratory study, with the aim to identifying which priorities these contexts need.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDublin and spp. are two foodborne pathogens of importance. A small number of studies reported that consumption of veal liver was associated with an increased risk of human illness from these two pathogens.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSocial-ecological systems conceptualise how social human systems and ecological natural systems are intertwined. In this Personal View, we define the scope and applicability of social-ecological resilience to antimicrobial resistance. Resilience to antimicrobial resistance corresponds to the capacity to maintain the societal benefits of antimicrobial use and One Health systems' performance in the face of the evolutionary behaviour of microorganisms in response to antimicrobial use.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a complex problem that requires the One Health approach, that is, a collaboration among various disciplines working in different sectors (animal, human and environment) to resolve it. Mathematical and statistical models have been used to understand AMR development, emergence, dissemination, prediction and forecasting. A review of the published models of AMR will help consolidate our knowledge of the dynamics of AMR and will also facilitate decision-makers and researchers in evaluating the credibility, generalisability and interpretation of the results and aspects of AMR models.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) threatens our ability to treat and prevent infectious diseases worldwide. A significant driver of AMR is antimicrobial use (AMU) in human and veterinary medicine. Therefore, education and awareness of AMR among antimicrobial prescribers is critical.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAntimicrobial resistance (AMR) has become a critical threat to public health worldwide. The use of antimicrobials in food and livestock agriculture, including the production of poultry, is thought to contribute to the dissemination of antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB) and the genes and plasmids that confer the resistant phenotype (ARG). However, the relative contribution of each of these processes to the emergence of resistant pathogens in poultry production and their potential role in the transmission of resistant pathogens in human infections, requires a deeper understanding of the dynamics of ARB and ARG in food production and the factors involved in the increased risk of transmission.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFResistance to beta-lactam antimicrobials caused by extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing organisms is a global health concern. The objectives of this study were to (1) summarise the prevalence of potential ESBL-producing (ESBL-EC) and spp. (ESBL-SA) isolates from agrifood and human sources in Canada from 2012 to 2017, and (2) describe the distribution of ESBL genotypes among these isolates.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA systematic review and Bayesian sequential pair-wise meta-analyses were conducted to assess the efficacy of internal teat sealants (ITS) administered at dry-off in comparison to no treatment for preventing new intramammary infections (IMI) and clinical mastitis (CM) in dairy cattle. This work updated a previous systematic review and network meta-analysis conducted in 2019 but employed a narrowed scope and eligibility. The updated eligibility included studies that used ITS without concurrent therapy compared to a no treatment control (NTC), a study population of dairy cows or prepartum heifers, controlled trial design, and assessed one of the following outcomes: incidence of new IMI at calving or CM during the first 30 days in milk (DIM).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe health and welfare of wild animals are of increasing concern, yet there are very few large-scale data syntheses examining how causes of wildlife morbidity and mortality vary across time, space, and taxa. Records for 18,540 animals submitted to the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative (CWHC) (2009-19) and 144,846 animals admitted to 19 wildlife rehabilitation centers (WRCs) (2015-19) were evaluated to 1) identify the main causes of morbidity and mortality for Canadian wildlife and 2) assess the utility and complementarity of these two data sources to further our understanding of wildlife health. The CWHC cases (mortality) were examined by pathologists and grouped by the presence or absence of five diagnostic categories: trauma, emaciation, infection or inflammation, toxicity, and other.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFspp. are one of the most common causes of bacterial gastroenteritis in Canada and worldwide. Fluoroquinolones are often used to treat complicated human campylobacteriosis and strains of spp.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe investigated whether gentamicin resistance (Gen) in Escherichia coli isolates from human infections was related to Gen E. coli in chicken and whether resistance may be due to coselection from use of lincomycin-spectinomycin in chickens on farms. Whole-genome sequencing was performed on 483 Gen E.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAntimicrobial resistance (AMR) is continuing to grow across the world. Though often thought of as a mostly public health issue, AMR is also a major agricultural and environmental problem. As such, many researchers refer to it as the preeminent One Health issue.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a growing global crisis with long-term and unpredictable health, social and economic impacts, with which climate change is likely to interact. Understanding how to govern AMR amidst evolving climatic changes is critical. Scenario planning offers a suitable approach.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAntimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a complex problem that is a threat to global public health. Consumption of turkey meat may be an important source of foodborne exposure to resistant bacteria; recent outbreaks of multi-drug-resistant Reading in Canada and the USA have implicated raw turkey products. To better understand the epidemiology of AMR in farmed turkey production, a scoping review was conducted.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFExtended-spectrum β-lactamases (ESBLs) confer resistance to extended-spectrum cephalosporins, a major class of clinical antimicrobial drugs. We used genomic analysis to investigate whether domestic food animals, retail meat, and pets were reservoirs of ESBL-producing Salmonella for human infection in Canada. Of 30,303 Salmonella isolates tested during 2012-2016, we detected 95 ESBL producers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAntimicrobial resistance (AMR) affects the environment, and animal and human health. Institutions worldwide have applied various measures, some of which have reduced antimicrobial use and AMR. However, little is known about factors influencing the success of AMR interventions.
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