ABSTRACT
Tularaemia has not been reported in Dutch wildlife since 1953. To enhance detection, as of July 2011, brown hares (Lepus europaeus) submitted for postmortem examination in the context of non-targeted wildlife disease surveillance, were routinely tested for tularaemia by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Francisella tularensis subspecies holarctica infection was confirmed in a hare submitted in May 2013. The case occurred in Limburg, near the site of the 1953 case. Further surveillance should clarify the significance of this finding.
Subject(s)
Disease Reservoirs/veterinary , Francisella tularensis/isolation & purification , Hares/microbiology , Tularemia/veterinary , Animals , Disease Reservoirs/microbiology , Francisella tularensis/genetics , Humans , Netherlands , Polymerase Chain Reaction/veterinary , Sentinel Surveillance , Tularemia/microbiology , Tularemia/pathologyABSTRACT
In June 2008, three Dutch tourists participating in a mini-cruise in Turkey needed urgent repatriation for antitoxin treatment because of symptoms of botulism. Because there was a shortage of antitoxin in the Netherlands, an emergency delivery was requested from the manufacturer in Germany. An outbreak investigation was initiated into all nine cruise members, eight of whom developed symptoms. C. botulinum type B was isolated in stool culture from four of them. No other patients were notified locally. Food histories revealed locally purchased unprocessed black olives, consumed on board of the ship, as most likely source, but no left-overs were available for investigation. C. botulinum type D was detected in locally purchased canned peas, and whilst type D is not known to be a cause of human intoxication, its presence in a canned food product indicates an inadequate preserving process. With increasing tourism to areas where food-borne botulism is reported regularly special requests for botulism antitoxin may become necessary. Preparing an inventory of available reserve stock in Europe would appear to be a necessary and valuable undertaking.
Subject(s)
Botulinum Toxins , Botulism/epidemiology , Foodborne Diseases/epidemiology , Travel , Botulinum Antitoxin/therapeutic use , Botulinum Toxins/isolation & purification , Botulinum Toxins, Type A , Botulism/diagnosis , Botulism/drug therapy , Cluster Analysis , Food, Preserved/poisoning , Foodborne Diseases/diagnosis , Foodborne Diseases/drug therapy , Humans , Netherlands , TurkeyABSTRACT
Burkholderia (B.) mallei is the causative agent of glanders. A previous work conducted on single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) extracted from the whole genome sequences of 45 B. mallei isolates identified 3 lineages for this species. In this study, we designed a high-resolution melting (HRM) method for the screening of 15 phylogenetically informative SNPs within the genome of B. mallei that subtype the species into 3 lineages and 12 branches/sub-branches/groups. The present results demonstrate that SNP-based genotyping represent an interesting approach for the molecular epidemiology analysis of B. mallei.