Prevalence and burden of gastrointestinal helminths in wild and domestic guineafowls (Numida meleagris) in the Southern Province of Zambia

Objective: To determine the gastrointestinal tract helminthic fauna in domestic and wild guineafowl in Zambia.Methods: Post-mortem and laboratory parasitological examinations for helminth identification and enumeration were conducted on 198 guineafowls(148 domestic and 50 wild) from November 2010 to October 2011.Results: All guineafowls were infested with one or more helminths. Eleven helminth species, namely, Raillietina echinobothrida, Raillietina tetragona, Raillietina cesticillus, Ascaridia galli, Allodapa suctoria, Gongylonema ingluvicola, Tetrameres spp., Heterakis spp., Acuaria spiralis, Syngamus trachea, and Streptocara pectinifera were identified with no trematodes recorded. Mean nematode burden between domestic and wild fowl showed no differences having 113.7 [confidence interval(CI) 98.9-128.6] and 108(CI 76.6-139.5) nematodes respectively. In contrast, female guineafowls had a mean of 151.9(CI 128.4-177.8) nematodes per host which was significantly more than the males that had a mean of 79.6(CI 66.8-94.4). However, there were differences in helminth species richness between domestic and wild guineafowls with domestic guineafowls having more species present at a mean of 4.2(CI 3.91-4.44) than the wild ones at a mean of 3.4(CI 2.92-3.88) but there were no sex differences. Eight of the eleven helminth species co-occurred in domestic and wild fowl and five of the helminth species had higher prevalence in domestic guineafowls.Conclusions: Syngamus trachea, Streptocara pectinifera and Acuaria spiralis are reported for the first time in domestic poultry in Zambia. This study represents the first comparative study of helminths in domestic and wild guineafowls at an interface area and adds to the knowledge base in a discipline where a dearth currently exists.

Azithromycin Exerts Bactericidal Activity and Enhances Innate Immune Mediated Killing of MDR Achromobacter xylosoxidans

Azithromycin(AZM),the most commonly prescribed antibiotic in the United States,is thought to have no activity against multidrugresistant Gram-negative pathogens such as Achromobacter xylosoxidans(AX)per standard minimum inhibitory concentration testing in cation-adjusted Mueller Hinton Broth.Here we provide the first report of AZM bactericidal activity against carbapenemresistant isolates of AX,with a multifold decrease in minimum inhibitory concentration across 12 clinical isolates when examined under physiologic testing conditions that better recapitulate the in vivo human environment.This pharmaceutical activity,evident in eukaryotic tissue culture media,is associated with enhanced AZM intracellular penetration and synergistic killing with human whole blood,serum,and neutrophils.Additionally,AZM monotherapy inhibited preformed AX biofilm growth in a dose-dependent manner together with a reduction in viable bacteria.In an illustrative case,AZM in combination with piperacillin-tazobactam exerted clear therapeutic effects in a patient with carbapenem-resistant AX mediastinitis,sternal osteomyelitis,and aortic graft infection.Our study reinforces how current antimicrobial testing practices fail to recapitulate the host environment or host-pathogen interactions and may misleadingly declare complete resistance to useful agents,adversely affecting patient outcomes.We conclude that AZM merits further exploration in the treatment of drug-resistant AX infections.Novel approaches to antimicrobial susceptibility testing that better recapitulate the host environment should be considered,especially as infections caused by multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacterial pathogens are expanding globally with high morbidity and mortality.