Cíl: Zjistit výskyt potenciálně patogenních druhů babesií pro člověka v klíšťatech a v krvi psů a jelenů ve vybraných regionech České republiky. Prevalenci Babesia spp. v klíšťatech porovnat s výskytem jiných patogenů přenášených klíšťaty jako Borrelia spp., Anaplasma spp., Rickettsia spp. Materiál a metody: Vzorky klíšťat byly jednotlivě homogenizovány, ze vzorků klíšťat a krve živočichů provedena izolace DNA. Detekce Babesia spp. byla stanovena metodou PCR 18S rRNA genu a sekvenační analýzou PCR produktů určeny jednotlivé druhy babesií. Výsledky: V letech 2014–2016 byla analyzována klíšťata a krev psů a jelenů na různých místech České republiky. Ze souboru 675 klíšťat Ixodes ricinus dosahovala pozitivita na přítomnost Babesia spp. hodnot od 0,0 do 3,3 %. Sekvenační analýzou byly v klíšťatech identifikovány druhy Babesia venatorum, Babesia microti (patogenní druhy pro člověka) a druh Babesia capreoli. Prevalence Babesia spp. v klíšťatech byla v porovnání s výskytem jiných patogenů jako Borrelia burgdorferi s. l. (29,3 %), Anaplasma phagocytophilum (4,9 %) nižší a srovnatelná s Rickettsia spp. (1,6 %). U třetiny pozitivních klíšťat na babesie byla zjištěna koinfekce s Borrelia burgdorferi s. l. (B. venatorum – Borrelia garinii, Borrelia afzelii a B. microti – B. afzelii). Ze 109 vzorků krve psů bylo 3,7 % pozitivních na Babesia spp. s výskytem druhů Babesia gibsoni a Babesia vulpes. Z 50 vzorků krve jelenů z přírodního ekosystému dosahovala pozitivita 4,0 %. Identifikován byl druh Babesia divergens, nejvíce patogenní druh Babesia spp. pro člověka. Z 80 vzorků krve jelenů chovaných na farmách bylo pozitivních 5,0 % s výskytem druhu Babesia odocoilei. Nukleotidové sekvence babesií způsobujících humánní babesiózu byly zaslány do genové banky a přijaty pod čísly ON892053 (B. venatorum), ON892061 (B. microti), ON892067 (B. divergens). Závěr: Metodou PCR 18S rRNA genu a sekvenací amplikonů byly na území České republiky detekovány tři druhy babesií patogenních pro člověka: B. divergens, B. venatorum, B. microti. Výskyt těchto druhů babesií znamená potenciální riziko onemocnění babesiózou, zejména pro asplenické a imunokompromitované pacienty. Zjištěné koinfekce s Borrelia burgdorferi s. l. mohou být příčinou komplikovaného průběhu onemocnění.

Aim: To determine the occurrence of species of Babesia potentially pathogenic for humans in ticks and in the blood of dogs and deer in selected regions of the Czech Republic. To compare the prevalence of Babesia spp. in ticks with that of other tick-borne pathogens, such as Borrelia spp., Anaplasma spp., and Rickettsia spp. Material and Methods: Tick samples were individually homogenized. DNA was isolated from tick samples and animal blood. The detection of Babesia spp. was based on PCR of the 18S rRNA gene, and the identification to the species level was done by sequencing analysis of the PCR products. Results: In 2014–2016, ticks and blood of dogs and deer collected in various areas of the Czech Republic were analyzed. In a set of 675 Ixodes ricinus ticks, the positivity rate for Babesia spp. varied from 0.0 to 3.3 %. The species Babesia venatorum, Babesia microti (both pathogenic for humans), and Babesia capreoli were identified in ticks by sequencing analysis. The prevalence of Babesia spp. in ticks compared to that of other pathogens such as Borrelia burgdorferi s. l. (29.3 %) or Anaplasma phagocytophilum (4.9 %) was lower and comparable to that of Rickettsia spp. (1.6 %). Co-infection with Borrelia burgdorferi s.l (B. venatorum – Borrelia garinii, Borrelia afzelii, and B. microti – B. afzelii) was found in a third of Babesia spp. positive ticks. Out of 109 dog blood samples, 3.7 % were positive for Babesia spp., specifically Babesia gibsoni and Babesia vulpes. Of 50 blood samples of wild deer from the natural ecosystem, the positivity rate reached 4.0 %. The species Babesia divergens, a major human pathogen, was identified. Out of 80 blood samples from farmed deer, 5.0 % were positive for the species Babesia odocoilei. Nucleotide sequences of the agents causing human babesiosis were deposited in the gene bank under accession numbers ON892053 (B. venatorum), ON892061 (B. microti), and ON892067 (B. divergens). Conclusions: Using PCR of the 18S rRNA gene and amplicon sequencing, three species of Babesia causing human babesiosis were detected in the Czech Republic: B. divergens, B. venatorum, and B. microti. Babesia spp. pathogenic for humans pose a potential risk especially in asplenic and immunocompromised patients. The detected co-infections with Borrelia spp. can be the cause of a complicated course of the disease.

• MeSH
• Babesia microbiology   MeSH
• Babesiosis * epidemiology   blood   transmission   MeSH
• Borrelia burgdorferi MeSH
• Molecular Diagnostic Techniques methods   MeSH
• Ticks * microbiology   MeSH
• Coinfection diagnosis   transmission   MeSH
• Blood microbiology   MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Tick-Borne Diseases epidemiology   transmission   prevention & control   MeSH
• Polymerase Chain Reaction methods   MeSH
• Dogs * microbiology   MeSH
• Deer * blood   microbiology   MeSH
• Check Tag
• Humans MeSH
• Dogs * microbiology   MeSH
• Geographicals
• Czech Republic MeSH

A fructose-6-phosphate phosphoketolase-positive strain (GSD1FST) was isolated from a faecal sample of a 3 weeks old German Shepherd dog. The closest related taxa to isolate GSD1FST based on results from the EZBioCloud database were Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. animalis ATCC 25527T, Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis DSM 10140T and Bifidobacterium anseris LMG 30189T, belonging to the Bifidobacterium pseudolongum phylogenetic group. The resulting 16S rRNA gene identities (compared length of 1454 nucleotides) towards these taxa were 97.30, 97.23 and 97.09 %, respectively. The pairwise similarities of strain GSD1FST using argS, atpA, fusA, hsp60, pyrG, rpsC, thrS and xfp gene fragments to all valid representatives of the B. pseudolongum phylogenetic group were in the concatenated range of 83.08-88.34 %. Phylogenomic analysis based on whole-genome methods such as average nucleotide identity revealed that bifidobacterial strain GSD1FST exhibits close phylogenetic relatedness (88.17 %) to Bifidobacetrium cuniculi LMG 10738T. Genotypic characteristics and phylogenetic analyses based on nine molecular markers, as well as genomic and comparative phenotypic analyses, clearly proved that the evaluated strain should be considered as representing a novel species within the B. pseudolongum phylogenetic group named as Bifidobacterium canis sp. nov. (GSD1FST=DSM 105923T=LMG 30345T=CCM 8806T).

• MeSH
• Aldehyde-Lyases MeSH
• Genes, Bacterial MeSH
• Bifidobacterium classification   MeSH
• DNA, Bacterial genetics   MeSH
• Feces microbiology   MeSH
• Phylogeny * MeSH
• Dogs microbiology   MeSH
• RNA, Ribosomal, 16S genetics   MeSH
• Sequence Analysis, DNA MeSH
• Bacterial Typing Techniques MeSH
• Base Composition MeSH
• Animals MeSH
• Check Tag
• Dogs microbiology   MeSH
• Animals MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH

Many studies show that keeping cats and dogs has a positive impact on humans' physical and mental health and quality of life. The existence of this "pet phenomenon" is now widely discussed because other studies performed recently have demonstrated a negative impact of owning pets or no impact at all. The main problem of many studies was the autoselection-participants were informed about the aims of the study during recruitment and later likely described their health and wellbeing according to their personal beliefs and wishes, not according to their real status. To avoid this source of bias, we did not mention pets during participant recruitment and hid the pet-related questions among many hundreds of questions in an 80-minute Internet questionnaire. Results of our explorative study performed on a sample of 10,858 subjects showed that liking dogs has a weak positive association with quality of life. However, keeping pets, especially cats, and even more being injured by pets, were strongly negatively associated with many facets of quality of life. Our data also confirmed that infection by the cat parasite Toxoplasma had a very strong negative effect on quality of life, especially on mental health. However, the infection was not responsible for the observed negative effects of keeping pets, as these effects were much stronger in 1,527 Toxoplasma-free subjects than in the whole population. Any cross-sectional study cannot discriminate between a cause and an effect. However, because of the large and still growing popularity of keeping pets, the existence and nature of the reverse pet phenomenon deserve the outmost attention.

• MeSH
• Pets * MeSH
• Adult MeSH
• Internet MeSH
• Cats * microbiology   MeSH
• Quality of Life * MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Mental Healing MeSH
• Human-Animal Bond MeSH
• Cross-Sectional Studies MeSH
• Surveys and Questionnaires MeSH
• Dogs * microbiology   MeSH
• Wounds and Injuries etiology   MeSH
• Toxoplasma MeSH
• Toxoplasmosis etiology   MeSH
• Animals MeSH
• Check Tag
• Adult MeSH
• Cats * microbiology   MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Male MeSH
• Dogs * microbiology   MeSH
• Female MeSH
• Animals MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH

Enterococci form a complex, diverse, and very important group of bacteria from the technological and food safety aspect, or from the health-improving aspect as probiotics. Generally, enterococci are considered to be of low pathogenic potential, which is associated mostly with clinical strains. In these strains, production of virulence factors as well as resistance to many antimicrobial drugs could complicate treatment of nosocomial infections. Because there is a lack of information on incidence of these attributes in animal commensal enterococci, we screened 160 strains originating from feces of clinically healthy dogs in Eastern Slovakia (n = 105). The predominant species were Enterococcus faecium (57.5%) followed by Enterococcus faecalis (21.9%), and Enterococcus hirae (17.5%), while Enterococcus casseliflavus (1.9%) and Enterococcus mundtii (1.2%) rarely occurred. Among the tested antibiotics, gentamicin (high level) was the most effective drug against canine enterococci (95% of isolates were sensitive). In contrast, the highest resistance recorded (71.9%) was to teicoplanin. PCR screening showed the highest incidence of virulence genes in E. faecalis species. The most frequently detected were genes encoding adhesins efa Afm and efa Afs and sex pheromone cpd. IS16 gene, a marker specific for hospital strains, appeared in nine E. faecium strains. No strain was positive for DNase activity, 8.8% of the isolated strains showed gelatinase activity, and almost 100% strains produced tyramine. It seems commensal-derived enterococci from dogs could also to some extent be potential reservoir of risk factors for other microbiota or organisms.

• MeSH
• Anti-Bacterial Agents pharmacology   MeSH
• Drug Resistance, Bacterial MeSH
• Bacterial Proteins genetics   metabolism   MeSH
• Enterococcus drug effects   genetics   isolation & purification   physiology   MeSH
• Virulence Factors genetics   metabolism   MeSH
• Microbial Sensitivity Tests MeSH
• Dogs microbiology   MeSH
• Symbiosis MeSH
• Animals MeSH
• Check Tag
• Dogs microbiology   MeSH
• Animals MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH

• Keywords
• sdílená mikroflóra,
• MeSH
• Drug Resistance, Microbial * MeSH
• Animals, Domestic microbiology   MeSH
• Clinical Studies as Topic MeSH
• Cats microbiology   MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Microbiological Techniques methods   MeSH
• Specimen Handling methods   MeSH
• Human-Animal Bond * MeSH
• Surveys and Questionnaires MeSH
• Dogs microbiology   MeSH
• Animals MeSH
• Check Tag
• Cats microbiology   MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Dogs microbiology   MeSH
• Animals MeSH
• Publication type
• Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH

Bacteria associated with the tick Ixodes ricinus were assessed in specimens unattached or attached to the skin of cats, dogs and humans, collected in the Czech Republic. The bacteria were detected by PCR in 97 of 142 pooled samples including 204 ticks, i.e. 1-7 ticks per sample, collected at the same time from one host. A fragment of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene was amplified, cloned and sequenced from 32 randomly selected samples. The most frequent sequences were those related to Candidatus Midichloria midichlori (71% of cloned sequences), followed by Diplorickettsia (13%), Spiroplasma (3%), Rickettsia (3%), Pasteurella (3%), Morganella (3%), Pseudomonas (2%), Bacillus (1%), Methylobacterium (1%) and Phyllobacterium (1%). The phylogenetic analysis of Spiroplasma 16S rRNA gene sequences showed two groups related to Spiroplasma eriocheiris and Spiroplasma melliferum, respectively. Using group-specific primers, the following potentially pathogenic bacteria were detected: Borellia (in 20% of the 142 samples), Rickettsia (12%), Spiroplasma (5%), Diplorickettsia (5%) and Anaplasma (2%). In total, 68% of I. ricinus samples (97/142) contained detectable bacteria and 13% contained two or more putative pathogenic groups. The prevalence of tick-borne bacteria was similar to the observations in other European countries.

• MeSH
• Bacteria classification   genetics   MeSH
• DNA, Bacterial genetics   MeSH
• Phylogeny MeSH
• Ixodes growth & development   microbiology   MeSH
• Cats microbiology   parasitology   MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Molecular Sequence Data MeSH
• Nymph microbiology   MeSH
• Polymerase Chain Reaction MeSH
• Dogs microbiology   parasitology   MeSH
• RNA, Ribosomal, 16S genetics   MeSH
• Spiroplasma classification   genetics   MeSH
• Cities MeSH
• Animals MeSH
• Check Tag
• Cats microbiology   parasitology   MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Male MeSH
• Dogs microbiology   parasitology   MeSH
• Female MeSH
• Animals MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH
• Geographicals
• Czech Republic MeSH
• Cities MeSH

I když kvasinky různé druhy zvířat často jen kolonizují, mohou u nich způsobit i závažná onemocnění. Cílem studie byla identifikace kvasinkových izolátů, zachycených od psů, krav a domácích prasat, a dále stanovení jejich citlivosti k antimykotikům. Celkem bylo testováno 56 kvasinkových kultur, z nich 24 pocházelo ze psů, 20 z krav a 12 z domácích prasat. Hodnocen byl jejich vzhled na Sabouraudově agaru, mikromorfologie na rýžovém agaru, asimilace a fermentace různých zdrojů uhlíku, případně i dusíku. Citlivost k šesti antimykotikům (flucytosin, amfotericin B, mikonazol, ketokonazol, itrakonazol a flukonazol) byla stanovena semikvantitativně pomocí komerční soupravy Fungitest (Bio-Rad Laboratories). U psů bylo identifikováno celkem 10 druhů kvasinek, jejich zastoupení bylo téměř rovnoměrné. Naopak u krav ze 7 zachycených druhů výrazně dominovala Candida krusei (65 %), u prasat z 5 Candida rugosa (50 %). Dále bylo zjištěno poměrně nízké zastoupení rezistentních kmenů studovaného souboru kvasinek k testovaným antimykotikům. Nejvíce citlivých izolátů bylo k amfotericinu B, ketokonazolu a itrakonazolu. Na základě výsledků je možno konstatovat, že mezi soubory izolátů od psů, krav a domácích prasat byly prokázány významné rozdíly ve spektru druhů kvasinek, pravděpodobně jako důsledek vlivu odlišného prostředí a endogenního zdroje. Většinou dobrá citlivost k systémovým antimykotikům by měla mít pozitivní vliv na úspěšnost léčby případných kvasinkových mykóz ve veterinární medicíně.

Yeasts frequently colonize various kinds of domestic animals, but may also cause serious diseases. The aim of this study was to identify yeast isolates collected from dogs, cows and pigs, and to determine their in vitro antifungal susceptibility. Fifty-six yeast isolates from dogs (n = 24), cows (n = 20), and pigs (n = 12) were investigated. Appearance of colonies grown on Sabouraud agar, micromorphology on rice agar, as well as assimilation and fermentation of various carbon and nitrogen sources were evaluated. Susceptibility to six antifungals (flucytosine, amphotericin B, miconazole, ketoconazole, itraconazole and fluconazole) was determined semiquantitatively using the commercially available Fungitest kit (Bio-Rad Laboratories). Ten yeast species were identified in dogs with relatively even distribution. On the other handed, cow and pig were clearly dominated by Candida krusei (from 7 species) and Candida rugosa (from 5 species), respectively. Further, most of yeast isolates exhibited good susceptibility to the antifungals tested particularly to amphotericin B, ketoconazole and itraconazole. Based on results, it can be concluded that significant differences in the species spectrum and distribution were documented between groups of yeasts from dogs, cows and pigs. This is probably due to different environmental conditions and the endogenous origin of the yeast isolates. Mostly good susceptibility to systemic antifungals should positively influence the therapy of diseases caused by yeasts in veterinary medicine.

• MeSH
• Antifungal Agents MeSH
• Animals, Domestic microbiology   MeSH
• Yeasts MeSH
• Mycological Typing Techniques veterinary   utilization   MeSH
• Swine microbiology   MeSH
• Dogs microbiology   MeSH
• Cattle microbiology   MeSH
• Sus scrofa microbiology   MeSH
• Animals MeSH
• Check Tag
• Dogs microbiology   MeSH
• Cattle microbiology   MeSH
• Animals MeSH
• Publication type
• Evaluation Study MeSH

• MeSH
• Bacteriological Techniques MeSH
• Adult MeSH
• Middle Aged MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Dogs microbiology   MeSH
• Wounds and Injuries diagnosis   microbiology   therapy   MeSH
• Staphylococcus isolation & purification   classification   drug effects   MeSH
• Check Tag
• Adult MeSH
• Middle Aged MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Dogs microbiology   MeSH
• Female MeSH
• Publication type
• Case Reports MeSH