Introduction Whales, dolphins, and porpoises are susceptible to infections by protozoan and metazoan parasites. Methods In this study, tissue samples, as well as flatworms and roundworms, were ...collected from a common bottlenose dolphin ( Tursiops truncatus ), three short-beaked common dolphins ( Delphinus delphis ), two striped dolphins ( Stenella coeruleoalba ), a harbor porpoise ( Phocoena phocoena ), a long-finned pilot whale ( Globicephala melas ), and a fin whale ( Balaenoptera physalus ). These samples were molecularly analyzed. Results In one D. delphis, Toxoplasma gondii was detected in multiple organs, including the cerebellum. The cysts of the tapeworms Clistobothrium delphini and Clistobothrium grimaldii were identified in G. melas . Flukes collected from D. delphis belong to Brachycladium atlanticum , while those removed from S. coeruleoalba probably represent a new species. Four species of lungworms were also identified: Halocercus delphini in S. coeruleoalba , Halocercus sp. in T. truncatus , Stenurus globicephalae in G. melas , and a potentially new Pharurus sp. in P. phocoena . Conclusion These findings show, to the best of our knowledge, for the first time, the presence of T. gondii DNA in D. delphis . The cerebellum of the animal was Toxoplasma -infected, which might be relevant to inadvertent stranding. In this study, new genetic markers were sequenced for several helminth parasites of marine mammals, possibly including undescribed species.
The results of a surveillance study conducted by the International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium (INICC) from January 2004 through December 2009 in 422 intensive care units (ICUs) of 36 ...countries in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Europe are reported. During the 6-year study period, using Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN; formerly the National Nosocomial Infection Surveillance system NNIS) definitions for device-associated health care-associated infections, we gathered prospective data from 313,008 patients hospitalized in the consortium’s ICUs for an aggregate of 2,194,897 ICU bed-days. Despite the fact that the use of devices in the developing countries’ ICUs was remarkably similar to that reported in US ICUs in the CDC’s NHSN, rates of device-associated nosocomial infection were significantly higher in the ICUs of the INICC hospitals; the pooled rate of central line-associated bloodstream infection in the INICC ICUs of 6.8 per 1,000 central line-days was more than 3-fold higher than the 2.0 per 1,000 central line-days reported in comparable US ICUs. The overall rate of ventilator-associated pneumonia also was far higher (15.8 vs 3.3 per 1,000 ventilator-days), as was the rate of catheter-associated urinary tract infection (6.3 vs. 3.3 per 1,000 catheter-days). Notably, the frequencies of resistance of Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates to imipenem (47.2% vs 23.0%), Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates to ceftazidime (76.3% vs 27.1%), Escherichia coli isolates to ceftazidime (66.7% vs 8.1%), Staphylococcus aureus isolates to methicillin (84.4% vs 56.8%), were also higher in the consortium’s ICUs, and the crude unadjusted excess mortalities of device-related infections ranged from 7.3% (for catheter-associated urinary tract infection) to 15.2% (for ventilator-associated pneumonia).
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