Reservoirs and Transmission Flashcards
What are the two types of transmission?
Horizontal
Vertical
What is horizontal transmission?
Transmission to other individuals of the same generation (often unrelated)
Infected water, air, food, contact, vectors
What is vertical transmission?
Transmission from parent to offspring
Germline, placenta, infected birth canal, blood during delivery, milk
What are the 3 transmission routes between human reservoirs or environmental reservoirs?
Respiratory/Salivary
Faecal-oral
sexual
What are the 3 transmission routes between animal reservoirs?
vector (biting arthropod)
vertebrate
vector-vertebrate
What is a natural reservoir?
habitat where the pathogen normally lives and/or survives
human, animal or environment
What type of disease do water-borne pathogens cause?
gastrointestinal
What transmission route is most common for water-borne pathogens?
faecal-oral route
What are 5 water-borne pathogens?
Salmonella Vibrio Shigella Giardia Cryptosporidium
How is water safety assessed?
Water testing for indicator organisms of faecal contamination
Coliform testing
- common gastrointestinal tract organisms
- not generally pathogens
- assumed to be proportional to pathogen load
What are metagenomic methods?
Sequencing of all DNA in a sample
Compare sequences with databases to identify species
May be useful for source tracking
Can genomics be used for source tracking?
Yes, the same pathogen from different sources may have genomic differences
What was a time when genomics were used for source tracking?
Norway 2019 during an outbreak of campylobacteriosis
Horse faeces was determined to be the likely source
What are zoonotic infections?
Those that move between animals and humans
What percentage of all infections are zoonotic?
60%
