ORCID Profile
0000-0002-7562-1771
Current Organisation
University of St Andrews
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Publisher: Wiley
Date: 28-01-2011
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2015
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 04-02-2016
Abstract: Microbial pollution of the marine environment through land-sea transfer of human and livestock pathogens is of concern. Salmonella was isolated from rectal swabs of free-ranging and stranded grey seal pups (21.1% 37/175) and compared with strains from the same serovars isolated from human clinical cases, livestock, wild mammals and birds in Scotland, UK to characterize possible transmission routes using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis and multi-locus variable number of tandem repeat analyses. A higher prevalence of Salmonella was found in pups exposed to seawater, suggesting that this may represent a source of this pathogen. Salmonella Bovismorbificans was the most common isolate (18.3% pups 32/175) and was indistinguishable from isolates found in Scottish cattle. Salmonella Typhimurium was infrequent (2.3% pups 4/175), mostly similar to isolates found in garden birds and, in one case, identical to a highly multidrug resistant strain isolated from a human child. Salmonella Haifa was rare (1.1% pups 2/175), but isolates were indistinguishable from that of a human clinical isolate. These results suggest that S. Bovismorbificans may circulate between grey seal and cattle populations and that both S. Typhimurium and S. Haifa isolates are shared with humans, raising concerns of microbial marine pollution.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 31-12-2014
DOI: 10.1111/MEC.13001
Abstract: Environmental pollution often accompanies the expansion and urbanization of human populations where sewage and wastewaters commonly have an impact on the marine environments. Here, we explored the potential for faecal bacterial pathogens, of anthropic origin, to spread to marine wildlife in coastal areas. The common zoonotic bacterium C ylobacter was isolated from grey seals (Halichoerus grypus), an important sentinel species for environmental pollution, and compared to isolates from wild birds, agricultural sources and clinical s les to characterize possible transmission routes. C ylobacter jejuni was present in half of all grey seal pups s led (24/50 dead and 46/90 live pups) in the breeding colony on the Isle of May (Scotland), where it was frequently associated with histological evidence of disease. Returning yearling animals (19/19) were negative for C. jejuni suggesting clearance of infection while away from the localized colony infection source. The genomes of 90 isolates from seals were sequenced and characterized using a whole-genome multilocus sequence typing (MLST) approach and compared to 192 published genomes from multiple sources using population genetic approaches and a probabilistic genetic attribution model to infer the source of infection from MLST data. The strong genotype-host association has enabled the application of source attribution models in epidemiological studies of human c ylobacteriosis, and here assignment analyses consistently grouped seal isolates with those from human clinical s les. These findings are consistent with either a common infection source or direct transmission of human c ylobacter to grey seals, raising concerns about the spread of human pathogens to wildlife marine sentinel species in coastal areas.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-04-2017
DOI: 10.1002/ECE3.2891
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-01-2012
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
No related grants have been discovered for Ailsa Hall.