Shoe soles as a potential vector for pathogen transmission: a systematic review

Shoe soles are possible vectors for infectious diseases. Although studies have been performed to assess the prevalence of infectious pathogens on shoe soles and decontamination techniques, no systematic review has ever occurred. The aim of this study was to perform a systematic review of the literature to determine the prevalence of infectious agents on shoe bottoms and possible decontamination strategies. Three electronic bibliographic databases were searched using a predefined search strategy evaluating prevalence of infectious pathogens on shoe bottoms and decontamination strategies. Quality assessment was performed independently by two reviews with disagreements resolved by consensus. Thirteen studies were identified that supported the hypothesis that shoe soles are a vector for infectious pathogens. Methicillin‐resistant Staphylococcus aureus, Clostridium difficile and multidrug‐resistant Gram‐negative species among other pathogens were documented on shoe bottoms in the health care setting, in the community and among food workers. Fifteen studies were identified that investigated decontamination strategies for shoe soles. A number of decontamination strategies have been studied of which none have been shown to be consistently successful at disinfecting shoe soles. In conclusion, a high prevalence of microbiological pathogens was identified from shoe soles studied in the health care, community and animal worker setting. An effective decontamination strategy for shoe soles was not identified. Studies are needed to assess the potential for contaminated shoes to contribute to the transmission of infectious pathogens.     

What's hot in animal biosafety?

In recent years, the emergence or re-emergence of critical issues in infectious disease and public health has presented new challenges and opportunities for laboratory animal care professionals. The re-emergence of bioterrorism as a threat activity of individuals or small groups has caused a heightened awareness of biosecurity and improved biosafety. The need for animal work involving high-risk or high-consequence pathogens and for arthropod-borne diseases has stimulated renewed interest in animal biosafety matters, particularly for work in containment. Application of these principles to animals retained in outdoor environments has been a consequence of disease eradication programs. The anticipated global eradication of wild poliovirus has prompted the promulgation of new biosafety guidelines for future laboratory and animal work. Increased concern regarding the use of biologically derived toxins and hazardous chemicals has stimulated a new categorization of facility containment based on risk assessment. Recognition that prion disease agents and other high-consequence pathogens require safe handling and thorough destruction during terminal decontamination treatment has led to the development of new biosafety guidelines and technologies. The implementation of these guidelines and technologies will promote state-of-the-art research while minimizing risk to laboratory animals, researchers, and the environment.     

Chemical safety in animal care,use, and research

Chemical safety is an essential element of an effective occupational health and safety program. Controlling exposures to chemical agents requires a careful process of hazard recognition, risk assessment, development of control measures, communication of the risks and control measures, and training to ensure that the indicated controls will be utilized. Managing chemical safety in animal care and use presents a unique challenge, in part because research is frequently conducted in two very different environments--the research laboratory and the animal care facility. The chemical agents specific to each of these environments are typically well understood by the employees working there; however, the extent of understanding may not be adequate when these individuals, or chemicals, cross over into the other environment. In addition, many chemicals utilized in animal research are not typically used in the research laboratory, and therefore the level of employee knowledge and proficiency may be less compared with more routinely used materials. Finally, the research protocol may involve the exposure of laboratory animals to either toxic chemicals or chemicals with unknown hazards. Such animal protocols require careful review to minimize the potential for unanticipated exposures of the research staff or animal care personnel. Numerous guidelines and regulations are cited, which define the standard of practice for the safe use of chemicals. Key chemical safety issues relevant to personnel involved in the care and use of research animals are discussed.     

Epidemiology and disease control in everyday beef practice

It is important for food animal veterinarians to understand the interaction among animals, pathogens, and the environment, in order to implement herd-specific biosecurity plans. Animal factors such as the number of immunologically protected individuals influence the number of individuals that a potential pathogen is able to infect, as well as the speed of spread through a population. Pathogens differ in their virulence and contagiousness. In addition, pathogens have various methods of transmission that impact how they interact with a host population. A cattle population's environment includes its housing type, animal density, air quality, and exposure to mud or dust and other health antagonists such as parasites and stress; these environmental factors influence the innate immunity of a herd by their impact on immunosuppression. In addition, a herd's environment also dictates the "animal flow" or contact and mixing patterns of potentially infectious and susceptible animals. Biosecurity is the attempt to keep infectious agents away from a herd, state, or country, and to control the spread of infectious agents within a herd. Infectious agents (bacteria, viruses, or parasites) alone are seldom able to cause disease in cattle without contributing factors from other infectious agents and/or the cattle's environment. Therefore to develop biosecurity plans for infectious disease in cattle, veterinarians must consider the pathogen, as well as environmental and animal factors.     

Training strategies for animal care technicians and veterinary technical staff

An institutional training program for animal care and veterinary technicians should be planned and implemented to provide these individuals with knowledge and skills for performing their duties within a laboratory animal care and use program. The complexity in the regulatory and scientific features of the animal research environment necessitates a strong training program on diverse topics according to staff duties. Orientation training should include ethics and compliance with relevant laws, policies, and guidelines. Depending on specific staff responsibilities, training may be general or in depth on topics of species-specific biology and behavior, animal facility equipment and operations, animal health procedures, animal research policies, occupational health and safety equipment and practices, computer usage, training, and management. Staff training should be an ongoing mission for incorporating new equipment, practices, and procedures in the laboratory animal program; for providing periodic refresher training to maintain a high level of staff qualifications; and for retraining when skills or knowledge are found deficient. Large institutions often have a dedicated training staff to implement the institutional training program.     

Serendipity and new drugs for infectious disease

Serendipity, in various shades of semantic legitimacy, is abundantly evident in the history of the chemotherapy of infectious disease. We may be on the threshold of a new era of rational drug design, but most medications for infectious diseases have arisen, and continue to arise, from chance observation, clinical experience, and the empirical search for substances active against pathogens. Chance does not produce drugs; but where chance has played a pivotal role in drug discovery, the event may be considered serendipitous to a greater or lesser degree. In a deliberate search for new drugs, it is often difficult to assess the degree to which any resulting discovery is serendipitous, and the usefulness of the term becomes debatable. Many therapeutic advances emerge from research involving animals, and a triggering "happy accident" may reside in the most basic aspects of animal care or in the most arcane knowledge of animals. The examples discussed in this article deal mostly with parasitic disease and the use of animal models in the discovery of antiparasitic agents. In this area, as in others, chance has laid the groundwork for scientific advancement and practical benefit. Although the applicability of the word serendipity to drug discovery may often be uncertain, the role played by chance should be recognized and welcomed.     

Host-pathogen studies in the post-genomic era

Several studies are starting to show the power of DNA microarrays to identify interactions between animal hosts and their pathogens, and have revealed interesting correlations between host responses to different infectious agents.     

Establishing a culture of care, conscience, and responsibility: addressing the improvement of scientific discovery and animal welfare through science-based performance standards

Science-based performance standards offer a viable means of reducing regulatory burden while ensuring that research animal welfare and high-quality research data are realized. Unlike rigid regulations, science-based performance standards evolve as new information becomes available, thereby allowing new discoveries to be implemented in a timely manner and in a way that more effectively benefits the animals and the science. The implementation of performance standards requires a well-coordinated institutional team composed of the administration, research staff, the institutional animal care and use committee, professional and technical animal care personnel, occupational health and safety staff, and physical plant staff. This animal program team is best supported in an institutional environment that reflects a culture of care, compliance, and responsibility. In such a culture, the professional judgment exercised by the team is well grounded in meeting the diverse needs of the program's customers, who include the animals, the researchers, and research stakeholders such as the public. The institutional culture of care, compliance, and responsibility fosters workplace integrity, an ethics-based decision-making paradigm, sound understanding of institutional expectations through good communication and clear lines of authority, the hiring and retention of trained and well-qualified individuals, and a system for continuous development and improvement of the program.     

Opportunistic infections of mice and rats: Jacoby and Lindsey revisited

Adventitious infections among rodents used in biomedical research and teaching continue to be problematic even with improved housing and disease-deterrent methodologies. In addition to well-documented viral diseases (e.g., mouse hepatitis virus and rodent parvoviruses) and parasites (mites and pinworms), new pathogens such as murine norovirus have emerged in recent years. Infectious agents can enter colonies via incoming rodent shipments, in unscreened biological materials, on people (especially husbandry or investigative staff) who move from a location where animals have a lower health status to an area where health status is higher and operational procedures are more stringent, or by introduction of contaminated food, bedding material, or other fomites. These factors, coupled with the very high volume of movement of rodents within and between institutions, increase the risk of spreading infectious agents. The challenge to the laboratory animal community is to implement control measures that halt the passage of these organisms from one location to another while still enabling collaborative scientific discovery to proceed with minimal disruption. It is therefore critical to make appropriate decisions about identifying outbreaks in a timely fashion and controlling the spread of infection once identified. Such efforts should be practical, reproducible, and cost-effective.     

From Pasteur to genomics: progress and challenges in infectious diseases

Over the past decade, microbiology and infectious disease research have undergone the most profound revolution since the times of Pasteur. Genomic sequencing has revealed the much-awaited blueprint of most pathogens. Screening blood for the nucleic acids of infectious agents has blunted the spread of pathogens by transfusion, the field of antiviral therapeutics has exploded and technologies for the development of novel and safer vaccines have become available. The quantum jump in our ability to detect, prevent and treat infectious diseases resulting from improved technologies and genomics was moderated during this period by the greatest emergence of new infectious agents ever recorded and a worrisome increase in resistance to existing therapies. Dozens of new infectious diseases are expected to emerge in the coming decades. Controlling these diseases will require a better understanding of the worldwide threat and economic burden of infectious diseases and a global agenda.     

Pathobiology and management of laboratory rodents administered CDC category A agents

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Category A infectious agents include Bacillus anthracis (anthrax), Clostridium botulinum toxin (botulism), Yersinia pestis (plague), variola major virus (smallpox), Francisella tularensis (tularemia), and the filoviruses and arenaviruses that induce viral hemorrhagic fevers. These agents are regarded as having the greatest potential for adverse impact on public health and therefore are a focus of renewed attention in infectious disease research. Frequently rodent models are used to study the pathobiology of these agents. Although much is known regarding naturally occurring infections in humans, less is documented on the sources of exposures and potential risks of infection to researchers and animal care personnel after the administration of these hazardous substances to laboratory animals. Failure to appropriately manage the animals can result both in the creation of workplace hazards if human exposures occur and in disruption of the research if unintended animal exposures occur. Here we review representative Category A agents, with a focus on comparing the biologic effects in naturally infected humans and rodent models and on considerations specific to the management of infected rodent subjects. The information reviewed for each agent has been curated manually and stored in a unique Internet-based database system called HazARD (Hazards in Animal Research Database, http://helab.bioinformatics.med.umich.edu/hazard/) that is designed to assist researchers, administrators, safety officials, Institutional Biosafety Committees, and veterinary personnel seeking information on the management of risks associated with animal studies involving hazardous substances.     

光动力疗法治疗感染性疾病的动物模型

光动力疗法(photodynamic therapy,PDT)是利用特定波长的激发光照射生物靶标上的光敏剂,从而产生活性氧并有效杀伤多种耐药病原体的新型治疗方式,具有作用广、安全可控、不易耐受等优点。大量体外实验已证实了PDT疗效,但目前动物实验数据较少,且治疗参数不一,一定程度上影响了PDT在临床治疗中的广泛应用。本文综述近年来PDT用于体内抗感染治疗的动物模型构建、治疗方案设计等方面的研究进展,为未来PDT抗感染研究及临床应用提供参考。     

艾滋病实验用猴的兽医管理

在艾滋病实验用猴动物实验中,兽医管理起着重要性的作用,包括实验用猴的挑选和质量控制,动物健康档案的建立和记录,兽医护理,麻醉药物和药品的管理和正确使用,实验期间的实验用猴疾病的预防和治疗,以及动物福利计划。     

“ISA-Lation” of Single-Stranded Positive-Sense RNA Viruses from Non-Infectious Clinical/Animal Samples

Isolation of viral pathogens from clinical and/or animal samples has traditionally relied on either cell cultures or laboratory animal model systems. However, virus viability is notoriously susceptible to adverse conditions that may include inappropriate procedures for sample collection, storage temperature, support media and transportation. Using our recently described ISA method, we have developed a novel procedure to isolate infectious single-stranded positive-sense RNA viruses from clinical or animal samples. This approach, that we have now called "ISA-lation", exploits the capacity of viral cDNA subgenomic fragments to re-assemble and produce infectious viral RNA in susceptible cells. Here, it was successfully used to rescue enterovirus, Chikungunya and Tick-borne encephalitis viruses from a variety of inactivated animal and human samples. ISA-lation represents an effective option to rescue infectious virus from clinical and/or animal samples that may have deteriorated during the collection and storage period, but also potentially overcomes logistic and administrative difficulties generated when complying with current health and safety and biosecurity guidelines associated with shipment of infectious viral material.     

Zoonoses of occupational health importance in contemporary laboratory animal research

In contemporary laboratory animal facilities, workplace exposure to zoonotic pathogens, agents transmitted to humans from vertebrate animals or their tissues, is an occupational hazard. The primary (e.g., macaques, pigs, dogs, rabbits, mice, and rats) and secondary species (e.g., sheep, goats, cats, ferrets, and pigeons) of animals commonly used in biomedical research, as classified by the American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine, are established or potential hosts for a large number of zoonotic agents. Diseases included in this review are principally those wherein a risk to biomedical facility personnel has been documented by published reports of human cases in laboratory animal research settings, or under reasonably similar circumstances. Diseases are listed alphabetically, and each section includes information about clinical disease, transmission, occurrence, and prevention in animal reservoir species and humans. Our goal is to provide a resource for veterinarians, health-care professionals, technical staff, and administrators that will assist in the design and on-going evaluation of institutional occupational health and safety programs.     

Introduction to the Good Laboratory Practice Regulations

The GLP Regulations provide the framework for performing scientifically valid studies and generating reliable safety data. Complying with these regulations is a complex process. The veterinary and animal care staff has a key role in supporting these studies.     

感染性疾病动物模型-观点与思考

感染性疾病动物模型是以导致感染性疾病的病原感染动物,或人工导入病原遗传物质,使动物发生和人类相同疾病、类似疾病、部分疾病改变或机体对病原产生反应,为疾病系统研究、比较医学研究以及抗病原药物和疫苗等研制、筛选和评价提供的模式动物。目前,国内外没有严格的感染性疾病模型的分类标准,但是,感染性病原动物模型的分类明显不同于一般动物模型的分类,因此,本文建议将感染性疾病动物模型按照病原种类特性以及疾病表现程度进行分类,便于规范化应用。     

Lurking in the shadows: emerging rodent infectious diseases

Rodent parvoviruses, Helicobacter spp., murine norovirus, and several other previously unknown infectious agents have emerged in laboratory rodents relatively recently. These agents have been discovered serendipitously or through active investigation of atypical serology results, cell culture contamination, unexpected histopathology, or previously unrecognized clinical disease syndromes. The potential research impact of these agents is not fully known. Infected rodents have demonstrated immunomodulation, tumor suppression, clinical disease (particularly in immunodeficient rodents), and histopathology. Perturbations of organismal and cellular physiology also likely occur. These agents posed unique challenges to laboratory animal resource programs once discovered; it was necessary to develop specific diagnostic assays and an understanding of their epidemiology and transmission routes before attempting eradication, and then evaluate eradication methods for efficacy. Even then management approaches varied significantly, from apathy to total exclusion, and such inconsistency has hindered the sharing and transfer of rodents among institutions, particularly for genetically modified rodent models that may not be readily available. As additional infectious agents are discovered in laboratory rodents in coming years, much of what researchers have learned from experiences with the recently identified pathogens will be applicable. This article provides an overview of the discovery, detection, and research impact of infectious agents recently identified in laboratory rodents. We also discuss emerging syndromes for which there is a suspected infectious etiology, and the unique challenges of managing newly emerging infectious agents.     

Modelling infectious disease - time to think outside the box?

Models occupy an essential position in the study of infectious disease as a result of the ethical problems of exposing humans to potentially lethal agents. Deliberately induced infections in well-defined animal models provide much useful information about disease processes in an approximation of their natural context. Despite this, animal models are not the natural disease process, and recent experimental advances show, perhaps not unsurprisingly, that there are large differences between natural infections and animal models. Focusing on mouse models of bacterial pathogens, we discuss some of these discrepancies and suggest ways of improving model systems in the future.     

A Quantitative Prioritisation of Human and Domestic Animal Pathogens in Europe

Disease or pathogen risk prioritisations aid understanding of infectious agent impact within surveillance or mitigation and biosecurity work, but take significant development. Previous work has shown the H-(Hirsch-)index as an alternative proxy. We present a weighted risk analysis describing infectious pathogen impact for human health (human pathogens) and well-being (domestic animal pathogens) using an objective, evidence-based, repeatable approach; the H-index. This study established the highest H-index European pathogens. Commonalities amongst pathogens not included in previous surveillance or risk analyses were examined. Differences between host types (humans/animals/zoonotic) in pathogen H-indices were explored as a One Health impact indicator. Finally, the acceptability of the H-index proxy for animal pathogen impact was examined by comparison with other measures. 57 pathogens appeared solely in the top 100 highest H-indices (1) human or (2) animal pathogens list, and 43 occurred in both. Of human pathogens, 66 were zoonotic and 67 were emerging, compared to 67 and 57 for animals. There were statistically significant differences between H-indices for host types (humans, animal, zoonotic), and there was limited evidence that H-indices are a reasonable proxy for animal pathogen impact. This work addresses measures outlined by the European Commission to strengthen climate change resilience and biosecurity for infectious diseases. The results include a quantitative evaluation of infectious pathogen impact, and suggest greater impacts of human-only compared to zoonotic pathogens or scientific under-representation of zoonoses. The outputs separate high and low impact pathogens, and should be combined with other risk assessment methods relying on expert opinion or qualitative data for priority setting, or could be used to prioritise diseases for which formal risk assessments are not possible because of data gaps.