Sarah Brower Microbes in the News 2

Biological characterization of  Pasteurella multocida  present in the Saiga population

by Mukhit Orynbayev, Kulyaisan  Sultankulova, Abylay  Sansyzbay, Rashida  Rystayeva, Kamshat  Shorayeva, Aidar  Namet, Sasan  Fereidouni, Gulnaz  Ilgekbayeva, Kainar  Barakbayev, Syrym Kopeyev,   and Richard  Kock

 

https://bmcmicrobiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12866-019-1407-9

P. multocida is a commensalist in human upper respiratory tracts.   from 2010 to 2015 there was a large mortality event among antelope in West Kazakhstan and Kosnstay.   They dies of hemorrhagic speticimia of a bacteria later identified through 16s ribosomal RNA sequencing as P. multocida.   These bacteria are stable commensals and opportunistic pathogens.

This paper was published two months ago, and I thought it was quite timely, considering it gives examples of both commensals and opportunistic pathogens.

I wonder how widespread some of these microbes can be?   These antelope had been followed for 40 years, and there was very little genetic diversity.   How can a microbe infect so many different forms of life and be the same, down to the subspecies.

1 Comment for “Sarah Brower Microbes in the News 2”

kcasillas

says:

This is a very interesting article, I’m wonder if an infected antelope become a vector for human infection. And are immunocompromised humans a cause for concern for infection.

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