Foundation of Global Epizootiology – a New Branch of Life Sciences

Globalization era starting in full in the 1990s brought entirely new conditions for epizootic disease spreading and control at global level. Significantly intensified global trade in animals and their products without any effective sanitary filter has facilitated mass worldwide spreading of the pathogens. Huge daily flow of exported non-pathogen-free animal commodities has led to rapid deterioration of global epizootiological situation. Never in the history did global occurrence of animal infections worsen as in present time when the amount of scientific knowledge is the largest in human history. Thus an important gap occurred in the structure of life sciences. No institution has yet started to fill this gap with missing scientific branch dealing with planet-wide epizootiological triad (animals - pathogens - environment) as with one compact dynamic biological system within the biocoenosis envelope surrounding the Earth. There has been an urgent need to develop new epizootiological methods in order to achieve desirable results in the protection of animal population health covering our entire planet. The author therefore used the opportunity provided by ResearchGate network. This made it possible to start a “Global Epizootiology” project as a new scientific branch dedicated to population health and epizootic disease control of all species of animal kingdom in the whole world. Its definition, objectives and content have been formulated. In conclusion, anthropocentric priorities have to be the protection of world human population against diseases transmissible from other species and global production of safe food of animal origin. During the first year ResearchGate Global Epizootiology Project reached 1,159 publications and update reads.

Temperature variability and moisture synergistically interact to exacerbate an epizootic disease

Climate change is altering global patterns of precipitation and temperature variability, with implications for parasitic diseases of humans and wildlife. A recent study confirmed predictions that increased temperature variability could exacerbate disease, because of lags in host acclimation following temperature shifts. However, the generality of these host acclimation effects and the potential for them to interact with other factors have yet to be tested. Here, we report similar effects of host thermal acclimation (constant versus shifted temperatures) on chytridiomycosis in red-spotted newts ( Notophthalmus viridescens ). Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis ( Bd ) growth on newts was greater following a shift to a new temperature, relative to newts already acclimated to this temperature (15°C versus 25°C). However, these acclimation effects depended on soil moisture (10, 16 and 21% water) and were only observed at the highest moisture level, which induced greatly increased Bd growth and infection-induced mortality. Acclimation effects were also greater following a decrease rather than an increase in temperature. The results are consistent with previous findings that chytridiomycosis is associated with precipitation, lower temperatures and increased temperature variability. This study highlights host acclimation as a potentially general mediator of climate–disease interactions, and the need to account for context-dependencies when testing for acclimation effects on disease.

Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis profiles of aeromonads isolated from healthy and diseasedHelix aspersafrom French snail farms

The XbaI digestion patterns of chromosomal DNA of 42 aeromonads isolated from French breeding snails during a new epizootic disease, which rapidly progressed to death during the summer of 1994, were analyzed by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. Biochemical identification to species level was also performed. Interestingly, we found that 76% of the aeromonads isolated from diseased snails clustered into a unique pulsotype (P1) whatever their geographic origin, and were assessed to belong to Aeromonas hydrophila. Other strains belonged to Aeromonas caviae or remained unspecified. Our results provide retrospective supplementary epidemiological evidence for implication of A. hydrophila strains in the snail summer disease.Key words: breeding snails, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, Aeromonas.