Salmonellahas been found to be the major cause of foodborne diseases and a serious public health problem in the world, with an increasing concern for the emergence and spread of antimicrobial-resistant strains. A cross-sectional study was conducted between February 2014 and December 2015 on food items of animal origin to assess the prevalence and antimicrobial resistance profiles ofSalmonellaisolates using standard bacteriological methods. The overall prevalence rate of 5.5% was recorded from the total analyzed food items of animal origin.Salmonellaisolates were detected from 12% of raw meat, 8% of minced meat, 2.9% of burger samples, 18% of raw eggs, and 6% of raw milk. Furthermore, antimicrobial susceptibility test identified 47.6% resistantSalmonellaisolates, 28.6% intermediately sensitive isolates, and 23.8% susceptible isolates. AmongSalmonellaisolates tested, 42.6%, 28.6%, and 14.3% were found to be relatively resistant to tetracycline, sulfamethoxazole-trimethoprim, and ampicillin, respectively, while 9.5%–19% were intermediately resistant to tetracycline, amoxicillin, ampicillin, cephalothin, and nitrofurantoin. Therefore, our findings provide the prevalence and drug resistance ofSalmonellafrom foods of animal origin and contribute information to scientists as well as public health researchers to minimize the prevalent and resistant foodborneSalmonellaspecies in Ethiopia.

Listeriosis, mostly caused by Listeria monocytogenes species, has become a major concern to public health authorities due to its clinical severity and high mortality rate, particularly in high risk groups. Currently, there is limited information regarding the prevalence and antimicrobial susceptibility profiles of listeria species in ready-to-eat foods of animal origin in Gondar town, Ethiopia. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of Listeria species isolated from ready-to-eat food of animal origin from public dinning places in Gondar town, Ethiopia. A cross sectional study on ready-toeat foods of animal origin sampled from major supermarkets, butcher shops, pastry shops, restaurants and hotels was carried out. Culture, biochemical and sugar tests were conducted for listeria species identification and disc diffusion test was performed to study the antimicrobial susceptibility profiles of the isolates. Out of 384 food samples examined, 96 (25%) were positive for Listeria species. Listeria monocytogenes was detected in 24 (6.25%) of the samples. Listeria monocytogenes was isolated from cake, raw meat, ice cream, minced beef, fish, unpasteurized milk and pizza in that order from higher to lower rate. Assessment of antimicrobial susceptibility profile of L. monocytogenes revealed the presence of four multi-drug resistant isolates. The higher resistance rate was recorded for penicillin, nalidixic acid, tetracycline and chloramphenicol, in decreasing order. All L. monocytogenes identified in the current study were sensitive to amoxicillin, cephalothin, cloxacillin, sulfamethoxazole, gentamicin and vancomycin. The presence of L. monocytogenes including drug resistant and multidrug resistant isolates in some ready-to-eat food items is an indicator of the presence of public health hazards to the consumer, particularly to the high-risk groups. Hence awareness creation on food safety and implementation of regulations about the use of drugs in humans and animals is strongly recommended.

Gastrointestinal nematodes (GINs) are the major limiting factor for the successfulness of livestock production throughout the world. Emergence of resistance strains as well as scarcity and high cost of the currently available drugs has led to the evaluation of other alternative helminth control options, mainly from plants. The current study is aimed at investigating the in vitro anthelmintic efficacy of crude methanolic extracts of two traditionally important medicinal plants, Artemisia herba-alba and Punica granatum, against Haemonchus contortus using adult motility assay (AMA) and egg hatch inhibition assay (EHIA). Four graded concentrations of the extracts were tested for both the AMA (10, 5, 2.5, and 1.25 mg/mg) and EHIA (0.1, 0.25, 0.5, and 1 mg/mL) in replicates. Albendazole and phosphate-buffered saline (AMA) or distilled water (EHIA) were used as the positive and negative controls, respectively. The crude extracts of A. herba-alba and P. granatum exhibited a potential anthelmintic activity at all dose levels in a concentration- and time-dependent fashion. The highest concentration (10 mg/mL) of all the extracts caused a significantly (p<0.05) superior nematocidal activity compared to the negative control. Moreover, significant and concentration-dependent egg hatching inhibition effect was observed from both plant extracts. Maximal (98.67%) egg hatching inhibition effect was exhibited by the flower extract of A. herba-alba at 1 mg/mL concentration. The relative egg hatch inhibition efficacy indicated that both plants caused a significantly (p<0.05) greater egg hatch inhibition within 48 hr of exposure. The current study validated the traditional use of both plants as a natural anthelmintic against H. contortus justifying a need to undertake detail pharmacological and toxicological investigation on both plants.

Phylogenetically distinct Mycobacterium tuberculosis lineages differ in their phenotypes and pathogenicity. Consequently, understanding mycobacterial population structures phylogeographically is essential for design, interpretation and generalizability of clinical trials. Comprehensive efforts are lacking to date to establish the West African mycobacterial population structure on a sub-continental scale, which has diagnostic implications and can inform the design of clinical TB trials. We collated novel and published genotyping (spoligotyping) data and classified spoligotypes into mycobacterial lineages/families using TBLineage and Spotclust, followed by phylogeographic analyses using statistics (logistic regression) and lineage axis plot analysis in GenGIS, in which a phylogenetic tree constructed in MIRU-VNTRplus was analysed. Combining spoligotyping data from 16 previously published studies with novel data from The Gambia, we obtained a total of 3580 isolates from 12 countries and identified 6 lineages comprising 32 families. By using stringent analytical tools we demonstrate for the first time a significant phylogeographic separation between western and eastern West Africa not only of the two M. africanum (West Africa 1 and 2) but also of several major M. tuberculosis sensu stricto families, such as LAM10 and Haarlem 3. Moreover, in a longitudinal logistic regression analysis for grouped data we showed that M. africanum West Africa 2 remains a persistent health concern. Because of the geographical divide of the mycobacterial populations in West Africa, individual research findings from one country cannot be generalized across the whole region. The unequal geographical family distribution should be considered in placement and design of future clinical trials in West Africa. Tuberculosis is caused by bacteria belonging to the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBc), which consists of seven major, phylogenetically distinct lineages and their families. West Africa is the only region in the world where, besides the common M. tuberculosis lineages, the two M. africanum lineages are endemic. We demonstrate that the composition of the mycobacterial population in the western part of West Africa significantly differs from the one in the eastern part. This documented variation will impact on generalizability and interpretation of clinical trials outcomes. Therefore future trial designs need to consider the geographical diversity of underlying mycobacterial populations.

In this study we assessed first-line anti-tuberculosis drug resistance and the genotypic distribution of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) isolates that had been collected from consecutive new tuberculosis patients enrolled in two clinical trials conducted in Guinea between 2005 and 2010. Among the total 359 MTBC strains that were analyzed in this study, 22.8% were resistant to at least one of the first line anti-tuberculosis drugs, including 2.5% multidrug resistance and 17.5% isoniazid resistance, with or without other drugs. In addition, further characterization of isolates from a subset of the two trials (n = 184) revealed a total of 80 different spoligotype patterns, 29 "orphan" and 51 shared patterns. We identified the six major MTBC lineages of human relevance, with predominance of the Euro-American lineage. In total, 132 (71.7%) of the strains were genotypically clustered, and further analysis (using the DESTUS model) suggesting significantly faster spread of LAM10_CAM family (p = 0.00016). In conclusion, our findings provide a first insight into drug resistance and the population structure of the MTBC in Guinea, with relevance for public health scientists in tuberculosis control programs.

This study described the population structure of M. tuberculosis complex (MTBc) strains among patients with pulmonary or lymph node tuberculosis (TB) in Northwest Ethiopia and tested the performance of culture isolation and MPT64-based speciation for Lineage 7 (L7). Patients were recruited between April 2017 and June 2019 in North Gondar, Ethiopia. The MPT64 assay was used to confirm MTBc, and spoligotyping was used to characterize mycobacterial lineages. Line probe assay (LPA) was used to detect resistance to rifampicin and isoniazid. Among 274 MTBc genotyped isolates, there were five MTBc lineages: L1-L4 and L7 were identified, with predominant East-African-Indian (L3) (53.6%) and Euro-American (L4) (40.1%) strains, and low prevalence (2.6%) of Ethiopia L7. The genotypes were similarly distributed between pulmonary and lymph node TB, and all lineages were equally isolated by culture and recognized as MTBc by the MPT64 assay. Additionally, LPA showed that 259 (94.5%) MTBc were susceptible to both rifampicin and isoniazid, and one (0.4%) was multi-drug resistant (resistant to both rifampicin and isoniazid). These findings show that TB in North Gondar, Ethiopia, is mainly caused by L3 and L4 strains, with low rates of L7, confirmed as MTBc by MPT64 assay and with limited resistance to rifampicin and isoniazid.