ecology
tsmith | April 7, 2006 For the final post of the series, I want to discuss yet another outbreak, this one a bit closer to home: that of monkeypox in the United States in 2003.
First, I should note that "monkeypox" is a bit of a misnomer. Though the virus--a relative of smallpox and cowpox--can infect monkeys (and humans), the reservoir host is likely a rodent. Previously, monkeypox had been found mainly in sub-Saharan Africa, in forested regions. 2 clades of the virus had been identified. One was common in West Africa, and generally didn't cause severe disease when humans became infected with it. The other…
tsmith | March 27, 2006Part One: Introduction to Emerging Diseases and Zoonoses
Part Two: Introduction to Emerging Diseases and Zoonoses continued
Part Three: Bushmeat
Part Four: War and Disease
Part Five: Chikungunya
Part Six: Avian influenza
Part Seven: Reporting on emerging diseases
Part Eight: Disease and Domesticated Animals
Part Nine: The Emergence of Nipah Virus
Part Ten: Monkeypox
Part Eleven: Streptococcus suis
Part Twelve: Salmonella and fish
Part Thirteen: new swine influenza virus detected
Part Fourteen: dog flu strikes Wyoming.
Part Fifteen: Clostridium species.
Part Sixteen:…
tsmith | March 13, 2006A bit busy today, so I'll direct you elsewhere for some good reading.
First, afarensis is thinking about re-naming his blog Aetiology Jr. after writing another post on bacterial meta-genomics in the sea; Mike discusses the Republican War on Epidemiology; John has more about the candiru I mentioned here, and Joseph revisits probiotics.
Second, as mentioned, an appeal. Some of you who are Panda's Thumb readers may remember this post from November, mentioning the death of Allan Glenn (aka "WinAce" from Wonderful World of WinAce). If you've not seen that site before, check it out--it's…
tsmith | March 6, 2006I meant to plug this last week: RPM at Evolgen has a post on microbial diversity in the gut, referencing a new Cell paper.
I was going to write up this paper on MRSA within amoebae, but haven't had time. I still might do a more extensive commentary, but Joseph has a few words on it.
razib | February 2, 2006Wired has an article up about urban coyotes:
...coyotes are thriving in city suburbs like Itasca and Palatine Village, and have even been spotted in the heart of Chicago's metropolitan area.
They've also been sighted in other major urban areas, including St. Louis, Minneapolis, Detroit, Cleveland and Boston, Gehrt said -- a result, in part, of increased urban sprawl and coyotes' adaptability.
Update: It's been pointed out to me that Seed has already covered this topic.
tsmith | January 27, 2006Speaking of chronic diseases caused by microbial agents, one of the earliest characterized of these is the group A streptococcus (Streptococcus pyogenes). In addition to causing acute diseases such as strep throat and scarlet fever, a wide range of post-infectious sequelae (complications that appear following resolution of infection) have been attributed to S. pyogenes. It can cause glomerulonephritis, a kidney disease. It's long been known infection with the organism can lead to a condition called Sydenham's chorea, a neurologic disease characterized by jerky movements. Infection with S…
tsmith | January 17, 2006
...be prepared to take some disinfectants along for the ride.
One thing that is a total geek-out for me is reading about ecology. It's one of the areas I wish I'd taken more coursework on back in college. At the time, it didn't much interest me--studying species interactions was boring, and molecular biology was much more interesting. I've pretty much flipped 180 degrees on that one. (Well, molecular biology isn't boring, but it's moved off its rung as a top interest). My main interest as far as ecology is concerned is microbial ecology--especially of the ecosystem we like to call human…
tsmith | December 24, 2005NHANES is an abbreviation that's quite familiar to epidemiologists of all stripes: the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. This survey dates back to 1956 with the passage of the National Health Survey Act, providing legislative authorization for "a continuing survey to provide current statistical data on the amount, distribution, and effects of illness and disability in the United States." Generally, information from these surveys has been used to look at the effect of nutrition, particularly micronutrients, on the health status of the population, or subgroups within the…
tsmith | December 1, 2005As I've mentioned before, Ebola is a virus near and dear to my heart. (Figuratively, not literally. I'm not quite that enamored of it). In that previous post, I mentioned that we didn't know the reservoir of Ebola in nature. It certainly isn't for lack of trying that it wasn't determined previously. The first field studies took place shortly after the initial 1976 outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Sudan. In the former, 818 bedbugs, 1500 mosquitoes, 10 domestic pigs, one cow, seven bats, 123 rodents, eight squirrels, six Cercopithecus monkeys, and three small antelopes…
tsmith | October 4, 2005Anyone working in the area of influenza virus epidemiology is familiar with the name Robert Webster. A virologist at St. Jude's Children's Hospital in Memphis, the native New Zealander has been leading the charge against influenza for well over 40 years. Barely out of graduate school, Webster hypothesized that something like genetic reassortment (which had not yet been discovered) occurred to cause the big changes that appeared among human influenza viruses, driving pandemics. He performed a simple experiment that cemented the course of his career: he found that serum from patients who had…
tsmith | May 22, 2005Every now and then, I check in over at The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) to see what new projects they're up to, as well as to see if they've released a particular genome sequence I'm waiting on. Yesterday I noticed this project:
Innovative Metagenomics Strategy Used To Study Oral Microbes
Rockville, MD - The mouth is awash in microbes, but scientists so far have merely scratched the surface in identifying and studying the hundreds of bacteria that live in biofilm communities that stick to the teeth and gums.
In an innovative new project that could help improve the detection and…
tfk | January 16, 2005Reposted from the old TfK.
I suggested at the bottom of a longish post that the Endangered Species Act ought to be supplemented with an Endangered Ecosystem Act.
The reason begins with thinking like a mountain. If you've read the last post and my Thinking Like a Savannah and you haven't read Aldo Leopold's Sand County Almanac, or at least its essay “Thinking Like a Mountain” just do it, and come right back.
…
OK, so now you understand what ecologists have known for 50 years – that the important thing in conservation is not the individual animal or even, perhaps, the individual species. Some…
tfk | December 13, 2004Reposted from the old TfK.
A few years ago, I someone gave a presentation here, arguing that we should reintroduce a bunch of extinct Pleistocene species into North America. Cheetahs were on the list, along with lions and Asian elephants (like these from the Bronx Zoo). The idea was that human hunting caused these species, and many more, to go extinct, so we ought to bring them back. The ecologists in the room all thought this was madness incarnate.
On a vaguely related topic, Salon.com has an article about elephant hunting. As in any conflict over the management of a large, charismatic…