Ecology of Burkholderia pseudomallei and the interactions between environmental Burkholderia spp. and human-animal hosts.

Early workers thought that melioidosis was a zoonosis with a reservoir in rodents, but we now know that Burkholderia pseudomallei is a widely distributed environmental saprophyte. In northeast Thailand, two thirds of paddy fields yield the organism, and 80% of children have antibodies by the time th...

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Main Author: Dance, D
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: 2000
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author Dance, D
author_facet Dance, D
author_sort Dance, D
collection OXFORD
description Early workers thought that melioidosis was a zoonosis with a reservoir in rodents, but we now know that Burkholderia pseudomallei is a widely distributed environmental saprophyte. In northeast Thailand, two thirds of paddy fields yield the organism, and 80% of children have antibodies by the time they are 4 years old. However, interpretation of these results has been complicated by the recent recognition of avirulent, antigenically cross-reacting environmental organisms for which the name B. thailandensis has been proposed. We still know very little about the climatic, physical, chemical and biological factors which control the proliferation and survival of Burkholderia spp. in the environment, although epidemiological studies show space-time clustering of melioidosis. It is assumed that most human and animal melioidosis arises through exposure to contaminated soil or muddy water, although only 6% of human cases have a clear history of inoculation, and a further 0.5% of cases follow near-drowning. Laboratory animals have also been infected by ingestion, inhalation and insect bites, but evidence of infection acquired naturally by these routes remains anecdotal. Sporadic cases have resulted from iatrogenic inoculation, laboratory accidents, and person-to-person or animal-to-person spread. Whether exposure to B. pseudomallei will result in disease probably depends on the balance between the virulence of the strain, the immune status of the host (e.g. diabetes mellitus) and the size of the inoculum.
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spelling oxford-uuid:5bd9b33e-a618-4206-8bb6-b72c6f7206a02022-03-26T17:24:30ZEcology of Burkholderia pseudomallei and the interactions between environmental Burkholderia spp. and human-animal hosts.Journal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:5bd9b33e-a618-4206-8bb6-b72c6f7206a0EnglishSymplectic Elements at Oxford2000Dance, DEarly workers thought that melioidosis was a zoonosis with a reservoir in rodents, but we now know that Burkholderia pseudomallei is a widely distributed environmental saprophyte. In northeast Thailand, two thirds of paddy fields yield the organism, and 80% of children have antibodies by the time they are 4 years old. However, interpretation of these results has been complicated by the recent recognition of avirulent, antigenically cross-reacting environmental organisms for which the name B. thailandensis has been proposed. We still know very little about the climatic, physical, chemical and biological factors which control the proliferation and survival of Burkholderia spp. in the environment, although epidemiological studies show space-time clustering of melioidosis. It is assumed that most human and animal melioidosis arises through exposure to contaminated soil or muddy water, although only 6% of human cases have a clear history of inoculation, and a further 0.5% of cases follow near-drowning. Laboratory animals have also been infected by ingestion, inhalation and insect bites, but evidence of infection acquired naturally by these routes remains anecdotal. Sporadic cases have resulted from iatrogenic inoculation, laboratory accidents, and person-to-person or animal-to-person spread. Whether exposure to B. pseudomallei will result in disease probably depends on the balance between the virulence of the strain, the immune status of the host (e.g. diabetes mellitus) and the size of the inoculum.
spellingShingle Dance, D
Ecology of Burkholderia pseudomallei and the interactions between environmental Burkholderia spp. and human-animal hosts.
title Ecology of Burkholderia pseudomallei and the interactions between environmental Burkholderia spp. and human-animal hosts.
title_full Ecology of Burkholderia pseudomallei and the interactions between environmental Burkholderia spp. and human-animal hosts.
title_fullStr Ecology of Burkholderia pseudomallei and the interactions between environmental Burkholderia spp. and human-animal hosts.
title_full_unstemmed Ecology of Burkholderia pseudomallei and the interactions between environmental Burkholderia spp. and human-animal hosts.
title_short Ecology of Burkholderia pseudomallei and the interactions between environmental Burkholderia spp. and human-animal hosts.
title_sort ecology of burkholderia pseudomallei and the interactions between environmental burkholderia spp and human animal hosts
work_keys_str_mv AT danced ecologyofburkholderiapseudomalleiandtheinteractionsbetweenenvironmentalburkholderiasppandhumananimalhosts