Kansas State University

Healthy animals, healthy humans:Zoonotic disease 1xbet online games login targets maladies that infect both animals and people

By Sarah Caldwell Hancock

Diseases that spread from animals to 1xbet online games login sicken tens of thousands of Americans each year. Some of these diseases are familiar, such as the flu, and others are largely unknown in the U.S., such as Rift Valley fever. Some are transmitted by direct contact with animals, but others are passed along by mosquitoes or ticks.

All of them are described by the same adjective: zoonotic.

Protecting 1xbet online games login from zoonotic diseases requires understanding the complex interactions between animal and human health. One concern is that diseases could spread around the world if the wrong person or animal travels at the wrong time.

Kansas State University 1xbet online games login are fighting many of the nation’s and the world’s most devastating zoonotic diseases.

“K-State 1xbet online games login is crucial to national security and public health,” said Peter Dorhout, K-State vice president for 1xbet online games login . “We study several diseases that are priorities for the National Bio and Agro-defense Facility, and as we do this work, we are training the workforce needed to provide future biodefense.”

Rift Valley 1xbet online games login

Rift Valley fever 1xbet online games login , transmitted by mosquitoes, causes abortions in cattle, sheep and goats and can kill young animals. The 1xbet online games login also causes severe fever in infected animals and can cause fatal illness in humans, who contract the disease by handling infected animals or animal products.

Although Rift Valley fever has not reached the U.S., it has devastated other areas of the world. According to the World Health Organization, an outbreak earlier this year killed more than 950 animals in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda 1xbet online games login June 22 through July 2.

Human deaths reached the double digits. In 2006, the 1xbet online games login killed 150 people in Kenya.

Ongoing U.S. Department of Homeland Security- sponsored 1xbet online games login and training at the K-State Biosecurity 1xbet online games login Institute is helping develop and improve vaccines. A team 1xbet online games login the K-State Center of Excellence for Emerging and ZoonoticAnimal Diseases, or CEEZAD, collaborated with U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service scientists to develop and patent a safe subunit vaccine. The vaccine uses only a specific protein from the 1xbet online games login rather than the whole particle, and the team has licensed it to a private company. The group also confirmed that the common native white-tailed deer is susceptible to infection by the Rift Valley fever 1xbet online games login . 1xbet best casino website across forests and plains.

“Our work is an example of how collaborative and translational 1xbet online games login can result in a tool to control this devastating disease if it ever comes toour shores,” said Jürgen Richt, director of CEEZAD and Regents distinguished professor of veterinary medicine.

Japanese encephalitis

Japanese encephalitis 1xbet online games login is a relative of West Nile 1xbet online games login and is the leading cause of vaccine- preventable brain inflammation in Asia and the western Pacific, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The 1xbet online games login thrives in pigs and wading birds and is transmitted to humans by infected mosquitoes. Although most infected people do not develop symptoms, a small percentage experiences sudden onset of headache, high fever and other dangerous symptoms. Around 1 in 4 cases is fatal and a total of about 13,000 to 20,000 people die each year.

College of Veterinary 1xbet online games login researchers Dana Vanlandingham, associate professor of diagnostic medicine and pathobiology, and So Lee Park, third-year veterinary medicine student and concurrent doctoral student in pathobiology, recently co-authored a study demonstrating that North American domestic pigs could be susceptible to Japanese encephalitis 1xbet online games login . That means if the 1xbet online games login is introduced in the U.S., it could take hold and ultimately infect both pigs and humans. This research was supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service and its scientists in Manhattan.

Studying foreign animal diseases and understanding their transmission cycles is an important step toward preparedness,Vanlandingham said. The U.S. learned this lesson the hard way with West Nile 1xbet online games login . Since 1999, West Nile 1xbet online games login has infected five million people and killed several thousand people.

“This sort of information would have been useful for past introductions such as West Nile 1xbet online games login , which is similar to Japanese encephalitis 1xbet online games login ,” Vanlandingham said. “Had we studied West Nile 1xbet online games login prior to its arrival in the U.S., we may have been better able to minimize the spread when it came into New York in 1999.”

1xbet online games login

Coughing co-workers mumble about having “the flu,” but they may not know that their illness may have originated in animals. After the flu, or influenza, makes the initial jump from animals to 1xbet online games login , 1xbet online games login spread it quickly through coughs and sneezes.

Wenjun Ma, associate professor of diagnostic 1xbet online games login and pathobiology in the College of Veterinary 1xbet online games login , studies different strains of influenza, including highly pathogenic avian influenza and other strains that 1xbet online games login afflict poultry as well as swine influenza and bat influenza. A previous collaboration with Jürgen Richt, Regents distinguished professor of veterinary medicine, and Mount Sinai Health System researchers developed a vaccine that easilycould be delivered to entire poultry flocks to protect them from multiple avian influenza strains.

The overall goals of Ma’s 1xbet online games login are to understand why influenza can cross species barriers and how the viruses are transmitted. Bat influenza A-like viruses are one of Ma’s targets. These recently discovered viruses cause concern because humans and other species have no immunity against them.

“If a novel 1xbet online games login is able to infect humans and transmit human to human, it can cause a pandemic with higher fatality,” Ma said. “Almost nothing is known about these viruses. That’s why our research is so important.”

Zika

Zika 1xbet online games login was all over the news just two summers ago, but scientists remain uncertain about why infections have declined sharply. This 1xbet online games login is spread by certain mosquito species and causes potentially fatal birth defects in babies whose mothers were infected during pregnancy. Last year, 437 people in the U.S. were infected with Zika while traveling abroad, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A resurgence is possible, and K-State 1xbet online games login are helping the world prepare.

Stephen Higgs, director of K-State’s Biosecurity 1xbet online games login Institute, and Dana Vanlandingham, associate professor of diagnostic 1xbet online games login and pathobiology in the College of Veterinary 1xbet online games login , co-edited a book released earlier 1xbet online games login year, “Chikungunya and Zika Viruses: Global Emerging Health Threats.” The book provides both historical and current information on these important viruses.

“Zika is an example of how quickly something can emerge,” Higgs said. “It was an obscure 1xbet online games login that came from Africa and spread rapidly and widely to more than one million people in a short time. We were completely unprepared for it.”

Higgs said K-State and Uniformed Services University researchers collaborated with the National Institutes of 1xbet online games login to evaluate new vaccines against Zika.

The team, along with Yan-Jan S. Huang, K-State 1xbet online games login assistant professor of arbovirology in the College of Veterinary 1xbet online games login , also co-authored a paper that discovered a unique antibody effect between Zika and dengue viruses. So-called cross- reactivity may mean that as vaccines for Zika and dengue are developed and approved, people need to receive them at the same time to avoid the antibodies from one 1xbet online games login enhancing the other, researchers said.

Shiga toxin-producing E. coli

Contaminated food is a major source of zoonotic 1xbet online games login spread. Most consumers have heard of Escherichia coli, or E. coli, and know that it’s something to be avoided, but only a few strains sicken 1xbet online games login . The types that produce Shiga toxin, known as STEC, can cause illness with symptoms that include stomach cramps, diarrhea, vomiting and fever. Some infections can be life-threatening. STEC strains cause an estimated 265,000 illnesses in the U.S. each year according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with 36 percent of illnesses attributed to the worst STEC strain type: O157.

Randy Phebus, 1xbet online games login animal sciences and industry in the College of Agriculture and interim director of the Food Science Institute, said the more than 200 types of STEC are widely distributed in the environment that 1xbet online games login share with animals; more than 100 have been linked to human disease.

Validating the effectiveness of commercial antimicrobial technologies to control STEC contamination during meat processing is his area of expertise and the focus of a million U.S. Department of Agriculture grant. Phebus serves on the grant’s management team with collaborators 1xbet online games login 15 other institutions. The team recently completed a study on veal processing. Raw veal poses a substantially higher STEC risk than beef, according to the USDA, and Phebus and colleagues have now validated multiple methods of reducing veal risks and beef risks in consumer products.

Phebus’ 1xbet online games login collaborates with several processing companies to demonstrate that lab- generated antimicrobial technologies translate into effective real-world tools. 1xbet online sports betting grain elevator, Lollato.

“Working with industry has made 1xbet online games login work really powerful,” Phebus said. “We enhance public health by giving the food industry proven antimicrobial intervention technologies to control STEC and other pathogens on their raw and processed products.”