AWARDS | Innovation Grant
Industrial Food Animal Production as the "Mixing Bowl" of emerging viruses
Ellen K. Silbergeld, PhD, Professor, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, JHSPH
The overall goal of this project is to define the role of CAFOs (confined animal feeding operations) in the emergence of zoonotic viruses that become transmissible to humans in order to develop a knowledge-based assessment of biocontainment and biosecurity related to protection of human health and the environment. The project is highly innovative and builds upon our recent findings concerning pathways by which pathogens, including influenza viruses, can move from poultry CAFOs into the environment. We now propose to investigate for the first time the role of both swine and poultry CAFOs in the emergence of highly pathogenic strains of influenza viruses, including strains with potential human-to-human transmissibility. We further hypothesize that flies serve as mechanical vectors to enhance mixing of viral strains across these domesticated species. 
Results Research in progress
See Other Related Projects Agricultural Origins of Community-Associated MRSA (2008)
Meghan Davis, DVM, MPH, Doctoral student, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, JHSPH Occupational Exposures to Campylobacter jejuni and Biomarkers for Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS) in Poultry and Swine Farmers (2008)
Leora Vegosen, MHS, Doctoral student, Environmental Health Sciences, JHSPH Transport of Tetracycline and Tetracycline Resistance Genes in Poultry Farm Soils and Aquifer Materials: Influence on Bacterial Tetracycline Resistance (2007)
Yaqi You, First Year PhD. Student, Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering, JHU; Markus Hilpert, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering, JHU Tetracycline Transport Through Poultry Farm Soils and Aquifer Materials: Influence on Bacterial Tetracycline Resistance (2005)
Markus Hilpert, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering, JHU The Impact of Poultry Litter as Fertilizer on the Bacteriological Quality of Leafy Vegetables (2004)
Jay Graham, MBA, MPH, Doctoral Candidate, Department of Environmental Health Sciences Antimicrobial Resistance in Farm Animals in Rural Bangladesh and the Impact on Human Carriage of Resistant Bacteria (2003)
Amira Roess, MPH, Doctoral Candidate, Department of International Health Transmission of Human Enteric Parasites by Filth Flies Associated with Wastewater Systems and Animal Operations (2002)
Thaddeus K. Graczyk, MSc, PhD, Associate Research Professor, Department of Molecular Microbiology & Immunology, (and others)
|
