A tragedy in every sense’: Union wants Red Deer pork plant shut down after worker dies of COVID-19

The union that represents employees of a Red Deer pork plant wants the Olymel facility temporarily shut down after a worker died of COVID-19.  

© THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz 

The Olymel facility in Anjou is seen Tuesday, March 24, 2020 in Montreal.

Alberta Health confirmed to Global News on Saturday that a man in his 30s from the Central zone without comorbidities died on Jan. 28 and was connected to the meat-processing plant's outbreak.

Richard Vigneault, a spokesperson for Olymel, called the death sad — "It's unfortunate, and we are very sorry about this" — and offered his condolences to the family. He said an investigation is ongoing.

Read more: All 13 workers sent home from Red Deer meat plant test negative for COVID-19

"This is a tragedy in every sense," said Thomas Hesse, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers, Local No. 401, which represents Olymel, a plant with about 1,800 workers processing thousands of pigs each day.

"There should be a lockdown of that workplace right away in order to have a meaningful, comprehensive investigation of the relationship between the death in the workplace and this broader outbreak so this doesn't happen again, and that is the employer's responsibility.

"Under Alberta law, they have a responsibility to keep their employees safe, and, of course, it's the government's responsibility to enforce the law."

'Crowd into a box'

The Olymel outbreak was declared Nov. 17, 2020, according to Tom McMillan, assistant director of Alberta Health communications. Currently, of the 168 cases linked to this outbreak, 90 are active and 77 have recovered.

"There are these huge risks in these places. Thousands of workers every day go crowd into a box and work side by side," Hesse said.

"You can have as much PPE as you want and plexiglass shields that you want, and people are still bumping into each other."

Read more: How the coronavirus pandemic could change meat processing in Canada

Olymel has recently ramped up production and hiring, Hesse said.

"At Olymel, we haven't seen these very significant outbreaks until recently, and we believe that it's because they've lost sight of health and safety, and they're focused on production, expanding their business and hiring more workers," he said.

"So the workplace is becoming more crowded and new employees aren't being trained and the health and safety culture is being lost. As a result of putting production first, we're seeing someone dying at very, very large numbers of outbreaks."

Read more: Quebec pork processing plant grapples with COVID-19 outbreak, union seeks temporary closure

When asked about Hesse's safety and production claims, Vigneault did not want to comment on what the union told Global News.
'There's going to be an answer'

Hesse said the union has asked the company to close the facility and have experts conduct a health and safety assessment.

"Our job as a union is to speak to the employer, ask them to do the right thing, close the plant down for a little while, hit the pause button. But really, this is the government's role to protect workers and protect the citizens of Alberta, the citizens of Red Deer. This could become a very, very grave situation very quickly unless some action is taken," he said.

McMillan said officials are "taking action to support the health of everyone involved and prevent future spread," which includes offering testing, ensuring people at risk of exposure are isolated and working with operators to make sure appropriate cleaning measures are in place.

As of Saturday afternoon, Hesse said the government and employer have not responded to the union's request.

"Workers are starting to just not show up for work because they're frightened," he said.

Read more: Canadian meat-packing industry looks to make big changes following COVID-19

Vigneault said Olymel received the union's letter, only confirming that "there's going to be an answer."

"We will respond to this letter. This is my answer," Vigneault said.

"But in the meantime, we'll continue with our sanitary measures, our co-operation with [Alberta Health Services], all the staff... and be sure that [additional steps that are working are] enforced and everybody respects those measures. So [we've done] that since the beginning of the pandemic, every day, today as [well as] yesterday as well as tomorrow, and this will continue as long as the pandemic.


"There's no reason, there's no plan to shut the plant down for two weeks as requested by the union. But we will discuss with the union about this request and see what can be done to reassure them."

Vigneault said Olymel is taking the situation "very seriously" with "strong measures, robust processes and safety protocols" to control the outbreak.

Read more: Alberta RCMP reviewing whether COVID-19 death of Cargill meat plant worker was criminal

"We are trying to do everything in our power to keep our employees safe," he said. "We're doing everything that could be done to stop the spread, and we co-operate every day with the unions within the plant."

New study examines addiction medicine treatment in Vietnam

OHSU lead author finds lessons to apply in rural counties across Oregon

OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

An assessment published this week in the journal The Lancet HIV provides new insight about an initiative to integrate treatment of opioid use disorder along with HIV in Vietnam.

The study marks one of the first scientifically robust assessments of a new model of treating HIV in lower or middle income countries where injection drug use is a major cause of HIV infection. It also suggests the importance of building support for peer and community connections to tackle the opioid epidemic that continues to ravage the United States in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The study was led by scientists and physicians at Hanoi Medical University and Oregon Health & Science University.

"Our study suggests that countries that want to expand treatment for opioid use disorder with buprenorphine should consider interventions to support retention on treatment directed at family networks, peers and community health workers," said co-author Todd Korthuis, M.D., M.P.H., a leader in addiction medicine at OHSU and the study's principal investigator.

Korthuis, professor of medicine (general internal medicine and geriatrics) in the OHSU School of Medicine, became involved in initiating the program in Vietnam after serving as a Visiting Fulbright Scholar in 2012-13.

The new study is the first multisite randomized trial to compare HIV clinic-based buprenorphine therapy compared with simply referring HIV patients to methadone clinics for opioid use disorder treatment. The study examined outcomes for opioid use disorder and for HIV, and how well participants stuck with treatment.

Researchers found that ongoing support is critical.

"We understand that addiction is a brain disease, so people have relapses," senior author Le Minh Giang, M.D., Ph.D., chair of global health at Hanoi Medical University, said in a podcast hosted by The Lancet HIV. "In many cases, the patients left the opioid use disorder treatment and then relapsed into drug use. That's problematic for people who don't have good support from clinical staff."

Buprenorphine, also known as Suboxone, can be prescribed and used outside a specialty addiction clinic, whereas methadone must be closely monitored in part because of a higher risk of overdose in unsupervised settings. Between July of 2015 and February of 2018, a total of 281 people were enrolled in a pilot project to treat people with buprenorphine - a first in Vietnam.

"It's a more flexible treatment than methadone maintenance," Korthuis said. "You can integrate it into HIV clinics and, theoretically, in primary care clinics. Methadone has to be very carefully controlled in a specialty setting."

The new study found that access to buprenorphine is essential for countries aiming to expand access to treatment for opioid use disorder, especially among patients also being treated for HIV.

"One of the things I was impressed with, is the very tight social fabric in Vietnam," Korthuis said in the Lancet podcast. "It's impossible not to overstate the role of the family, the role of the neighborhood and the role of the community in every aspect of life, including health care."

In fact, Korthuis is already implementing a similar outreach model in several rural counties in Oregon through an initiative funded by the National Institutes of Health. Known as Oregon HIV/Hepatitis and Opioid Prevention and Engagement, or Oregon HOPE, the initiative relies on peers who have recovered from addiction to engage their neighbors in prevention and treatment services.

The program is currently active in several counties across southern and eastern Oregon.

"Community health workers who really know their neighborhoods are really good at engaging people in addiction treatment - and keeping them in treatment," Korthuis said.

###

The Oregon HOPE project now includes Lane, Douglas, Josephine, Curry, Coos, part of Jackson and Umatilla counties in Oregon.

The research was supported through grants from the NIH National Institute on Drug Abuse, awards R01DA037441 and UG1DA015815; and NIH National Center of Advancing Translational Sciences award UL1TR002369.

Ensuring healthy family mealtimes is important - and complicated

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL, CONSUMER AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Research News

 

URBANA, Ill. ¬- Mealtimes are a central aspect of family life, affecting the health and wellbeing of both children and adults. Although the benefits of healthy mealtimes are straightforward, helping all families realize those benefits is quite complicated, new research from University of Illinois shows.

The study highlights ways in which some solutions - such as an exclusive focus on improving food access or on improving mealtime preparation and organization skills - may be less effective if done in isolation, says Allen Barton, assistant professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at U of I and lead author on the study.

"Family mealtimes are probably one of the most fundamental and frequent tasks that families engage in. If we are going to improve the health of children and families, effectively addressing family mealtimes will require some attention," he notes. "But in thinking about this issue we need to avoid overly simplistic answers and consider more holistic approaches to solutions."

Barton says previous studies on family mealtimes have tended to focus on either sociological factors (such as community food access and food security) or psychological factors (such as individual behaviors around mealtime activities) but the new study shows both dimensions are closely linked in families.

Barton and co-authors Brenda Koester, Elinor Fujimoto, and Barbara Fiese, researchers at U of I's Family Resiliency Center, studied more than 500 families with elementary school-aged children throughout the state of Illinois. Family members responded to a host of questions on food security, food planning and preparation, and mealtime organization. The researchers analyzed the data for patterns and identified three distinct groups, or family profiles.

The first profile, which comprised 55% of the sample, was characterized as food secure and having high levels of household organization. The families in this group reported the lowest levels of food insecurity and household chaos among the three profiles, as well as the highest levels of efficacy in preparing food, Barton says.

The second profile was at the opposite end of the spectrum and included 27% of the sample. "This group not only reports they are food insecure, but they also report the lowest levels of confidence in preparing and planning meals and most difficulty in daily structure and routine in the home," Barton notes.

The third profile group, which comprised 18% of the sample, had food security levels that ranged between the other two groups, but they reported levels of meal planning efficacy and household chaos similar to families in the food secure group.

That food insecurity is co-occurring with other family risk patterns means efforts to promote healthy family mealtimes should address multiple aspects, Barton says.

"We need to ensure families have access to healthy food. But we also need to make sure individuals within the family feel competent to prepare and plan meals, and the day-to-day organization at home has some stability and routine," he states.

The researchers also identified specific differences among the groups in food preparation strategies and mealtime behaviors. In particular, families in the second profile (those with very low food security and more difficulty organizing daily tasks) reported fewer weekly meals together, higher technology use during meals, and greater usage of away-from-home food preparation strategies than families in the other groups. All these behaviors correlate with less healthy food consumption and outcomes, Barton says.

While the study found clear differences, there were also some similarities among the three groups. All of the families were equally likely to shop for food in a variety of stores, including grocery stores, discount stores, and big box stores. The researchers also found general agreement in most common challenges among families concerning household meals, including how to deal with picky eaters and wanting easy menu ideas.

"The findings from this study are important in helping us develop practical resources that families can use to address challenges they face in providing healthy meals and regular family mealtimes," Koester notes.

The research also provides information for policy makers to address structural issues around access to food, as well as suggestions for changes within the home.

"We need to understand risk is multifaceted, so we should avoid myopic answers and solutions. We need to address food insecurity. We also need to help individuals increase their confidence in preparing meals as well as building routines, predictability, and organization into life in the home," Barton states.

For families, Barton emphasizes the importance of prioritizing family mealtimes. "These mundane aspects of family life that may seem trivial are really formative. Think about one aspect that you want to improve in this area - whether it's having more healthy meals, less screen usage during meals, learning about different food banks, or just having more meals together during the week - and then develop a strategy to go about doing it. There are some tremendous resources, including ones created by the researchers and educators at the University of Illinois, available to help you and your family."

For families facing food insecurity, Illinois Extension has created a resource called Find Food IL, which provides localized information for access to food. For families with children, the Family Resiliency Center offers help with family routines and other strategies for building resilience, as well as a series of videos on mealtime challenges and a collection of healthy meal recipes.

###

The Department of Human Development and Family Studies is in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois.

The article, "The complexities of family mealtimes in the 21st century: A latent profile analysis," is published in Appetite. Authors include Allen Barton, Brenda Koester, Elinor Fujimoto, and Barbara Fiese.
[https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2020.105009]

Partial funding for this research was provided by the Christopher Family Foundation Food and Family Program.

Student astronomer finds galactic missing matter

Distant galaxies used as 'locator pins' to detect 'invisible' cold clump of gas

UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY

Research News

 

IMAGE: ARTIST'S IMPRESSION OF A THIN GAS CLOUD FORMED BY TIDAL DISRUPTION FROM A PASSING STAR. SCIENTISTS THINK THIS IS ONE OF THE POSSIBLE WAYS THE COLD CLUMP OF GAS DETECTED... view more 

CREDIT: MARK MYERS/OZGRAV

Astronomers have for the first time used distant galaxies as 'scintillating pins' to locate and identify a piece of the Milky Way's missing matter.

For decades, scientists have been puzzled as to why they couldn't account for all the matter in the universe as predicted by theory. While most of the universe's mass is thought to be mysterious dark matter and dark energy, 5 percent is 'normal matter' that makes up stars, planets, asteroids, peanut butter and butterflies. This is known as baryonic matter.

However, direct measurement has only accounted for about half the expected baryonic matter.

Yuanming Wang, a doctoral candidate in the School of Physics at the University of Sydney, has developed an ingenious method to help track down the missing matter. She has applied her technique to pinpoint a hitherto undetected stream of cold gas in the Milky Way about 10 light years from Earth. The cloud is about a trillion kilometres long and 10 billion kilometres wide but only weighing about the mass of our Moon.

The results, published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, offer a promising way for scientists to track down the Milky Way's missing matter.

"We suspect that much of the 'missing' baryonic matter is in the form of cold gas clouds either in galaxies or between galaxies," said Ms Wang, who is pursuing her PhD at the Sydney Institute for Astronomy.

"This gas is undetectable using conventional methods, as it emits no visible light of its own and is just too cold for detection via radio astronomy," she said.

What the astronomers did is look for radio sources in the distant background to see how they 'shimmered'.

"We found five twinkling radio sources on a giant line in the sky. Our analysis shows their light must have passed through the same cold clump of gas," Ms Wang said.

Just as visible light is distorted as it passes through our atmosphere to give stars their twinkle, when radio waves pass through matter, it also affects their brightness. It was this 'scintillation' that Ms Wang and her colleagues detected.

Dr Artem Tuntsov, a co-author from Manly Astrophysics, said: "We aren't quite sure what the strange cloud is, but one possibility is that it could be a hydrogen 'snow cloud' disrupted by a nearby star to form a long, thin clump of gas."

Hydrogen freezes at about minus 260 degrees and theorists have proposed that some of the universe's missing baryonic matter could be locked up in these hydrogen 'snow clouds'. They are almost impossible to detect directly.

"However, we have now developed a method to identify such clumps of 'invisible' cold gas using background galaxies as pins," Ms Wang said.

Ms Wang's supervisor, Professor Tara Murphy, said: "This is a brilliant result for a young astronomer. We hope the methods trailblazed by Yuanming will allow us to detect more missing matter."

The data to find the gas cloud was taken using the CSIRO's Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope in Western Australia.

Dr Keith Bannister, Principal Research Engineer at CSIRO, said: "It is ASKAP's wide field of view, seeing tens of thousands of galaxies in a single observation that allowed us to measure the shape of the gas cloud."

Professor Murphy said: "This is the first time that multiple 'scintillators' have been detected behind the same cloud of cold gas. In the next few years, we should be able to use similar methods with ASKAP to detect a large number of such gas structures in our galaxy."

Ms Wang's discovery adds to a growing suite of tools for astronomers in their hunt for the universe's missing baryonic matter. This includes a method published last year by the late Jean-Pierre Macquart from Curtin University who used CSIRO's ASKAP telescope to estimate a portion of matter in the intergalactic medium using fast radio bursts as 'cosmic weigh stations'.

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Ms Wang and Professor Murphy's research was done in collaboration with CSIRO, Manly Astrophysics, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery, OzGrav.

DOWNLOAD the illustration, photos and a copy of the research at this link.

DECLARATION

The Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder is part of the Australia Telescope National Facility which is managed by CSIRO, Australia's national science agency. ASKAP uses the resources of the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre. Establishment of ASKAP, the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory and the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre are initiatives of the Australian Government, with support from the Government of Western Australia and the Science and Industry Endowment Fund.

Yuanming Wang is supported by the China Scholarship Council. Tara Murphy acknowledges the support of the Australian Research Council. David Kaplan is supported by a US National Science Foundation grant. This work used resources of China SKA Regional Centre prototype funded by the National Key R&D Programme of China and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The researchers acknowledge the Wajarri Yamatji as the traditional owners of the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory site.

Mapping hotspots of undersized fish and crustaceans may aid sustainable fishing practices

FRONTIERS

Research News

 

IMAGE: THE DARKER THE SHADING, THE GREATER THE PROPORTION OF INDIVIDUALS CAUGHT COMMERCIALLY THAT ARE SMALLER THAN THE EU-DEFINED MINIMUM CONSERVATION REFERENCE SIZE. INDIVIDUALS SMALLER THAN THE MCRS MUST BE LANDED... view more 

CREDIT: G. MILISENDA AND COATHORS

A new study in Frontiers in Marine Science provides a first-of-its-kind evaluation of which regions of southern European seas are in the most need of fishing restrictions. These areas have persistently shown high numbers of undersized fish and crustaceans, which are typically discarded because they are below the allowable size limit for collection. These findings may offer a strategy for prioritizing conservation efforts and ensuring more sustainable fishery management in the future.

"Natural fish populations need time to reproduce and recover from fishing impacts -- this is the only way to achieve a balance between natural resources and human exploitation," says lead author Dr Giacomo Milisenda, of the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn di Napoli in Italy. "Our findings provide evidence supporting active spatial-based management, such as the designation of Fisheries Restricted Areas (FRAs) in order to minimize the capture of immature or undersized specimens and improve the sustainability of demersal -- that is, sea floor -- fisheries."

According to a draft report from the European parliament in early January, Europe is far from reaching its marine sustainability and biodiversity goals. Despite the aims of the recently reformed EU Common Fishery Policy and commitments made by the European Commission, overfishing, habitat destruction and excessive discarding of unwanted catches are still ongoing problems.

The latest report from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations found that 75% of Mediterranean and Black Sea fish stocks are overfished. Furthermore, past research has shown that, globally, more than 40% of catches are thrown back. The FAO has also found that roughly 50% of the discarded fish from the Mediterranean Sea is the result of demersal trawling -- a method of dragging nets across the sea floor.

To identify the regions that regularly have high proportions of unwanted catches, Milisenda and his collaborators combined bottom trawling surveys with the itineraries of commercial fishing operations from the last 15 years. They focused on four of the most important fishing waters in the area: the continental Portuguese coast, Catalan Sea, South of Sicily and Liguria and northern Tyrrhenian Seas.

Their findings showed that there were patches that were repeatedly trawled, and that these locations frequently coincided with hot spots of undersized animals. These methods may also make it possible to predict and avoid zones that are likely to have too many of these smaller animals.

In response to January's European parliament draft report, a coalition of NGOs has issued an urgent call for additional resources to safeguard European waters. The General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean has already been promoting fishing restrictions that prioritize which regions to protect and Milisenda's findings may help better plan current and future fishing operations.

The authors hope that their research will be used by governments and fishing operations to help address these ongoing environmental emergencies.

"Spatial management can only be successful if it is combined with the active collaboration of stakeholders (fishermen) and an effective regulation plan," says Milisenda.

##

Experimental vaccine blunts the deadliest of synthetic opioids

In early tests, the vaccine was able to diminish fatal respiratory effects of fentanyl and carfentanil

SCRIPPS RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Research News

 

LA JOLLA, CA--As the opioid epidemic raged on with an even greater force during COVID-19, the Scripps Research laboratory of chemist Kim Janda, PhD, has been working on new therapeutic interventions that may be able to prevent the bulk of deaths from opioid overdose.

Janda and his team have developed experimental vaccines that have shown in rodents to blunt the deadly effects of fentanyl--which has been driving the boom in opioid deaths--as well as its even more fatal cousin, carfentanil, a growing source of overdoses and a chemical terrorist threat.

"Synthetic opioids are not only extremely deadly, but also addictive and easy to manufacture, making them a formidable public health threat, especially when the coronavirus crisis is negatively impacting mental health," says Janda, the Ely R. Callaway, Jr. Professor of Chemistry at Scripps Research. "We've shown it is possible to prevent these unnecessary deaths by eliciting antibodies that stop the drug from reaching the brain."

Once in the brain, synthetic opioids trigger the body to slow down breathing. When too much of the drugs are consumed, which is easy to do, breathing can stop altogether. In a series of experiments involving mice, Janda's vaccines "sequestered" the potent drug molecules to keep them from interacting with the brain and body, thus thwarting dangerous respiratory symptoms.

Findings appear today in ACS Chemical Biology, published by the American Chemical Society.

Janda envisions the vaccine being used in a number of scenarios, including emergency situations to treat overdoses, as a therapy for those with substance abuse disorder, and as a means to protect military personnel who may be exposed to opioids as chemical weapons. They may even be helpful for police dogs that are trained seek out these deadly drugs.

"The respiratory depression data we show is phenomenal for both fentanyl and carfentanil, which brings us hope that this approach will work to treat a number of opioid-related maladies," Janda says.

A long way from 'miracle drug'

Opioids are a diverse class of drugs that have been used to relieve pain for more than 200 years, although the landscape has taken a stark turn in recent decades. The pain drug morphine, isolated from opium, was heralded as a miracle drug in the early 1800s. Not long after, drug makers created a synthetic form, heroin, as a supposedly non-addictive morphine substitute. (The problematic nature of the drug became clear in the 1920s, prompting regulation.)

However, it wasn't until the late 1990s that opioids began to trigger a public health emergency marked by widespread overuse of opioid medications, both from prescriptions and illegal sale of the drugs.

Today, the problem has reached a new crescendo. In December, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared the highest number of overdose deaths ever recorded in a 12-month period, with synthetic opioids--primarily fentanyl, created in illegal labs--as the main source.

Also deemed a terrorist weapon

Fentanyl is much stronger than most other opioids, up to 100 times stronger than morphine. Carfentanil, meanwhile, is up to 10,000 times more potent than morphine, Janda says, making it the deadliest of all. It is often used in veterinary medicine to sedate large animals such as elephants.

Although carfentanil is not as well-known as a street drug, it is an increasingly used as an adulterant in heroin and cocaine, leading to unexpected drug overdoses. It can also lead to overdose deaths from accidental exposure, such as in veterinary or police settings. Having an emergency vaccine on hand can thwart those risks.

Janda says synthetic opioids also are considered a terrorist weapon; they can be made in large quantities and in several forms, including tablets, powder and spray. They are readily absorbed through the skin or through inhalation. A single terrorist attack using carfentanil could be deadly for large numbers of people, he says.

"Unfortunately, the rise in carfentanil and fentanyl overdose incidents is placing further strain on already overwhelmed public health systems currently battling a pandemic," Janda says. "We look forward to continuing our vaccine research and translating it to the clinic, where we can begin to make an impact on the opioid crisis."

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The study, "A Highly Efficacious Carfentanil Vaccine that Blunts Opioid-Induced Antinociception and Respiratory Depression," is authored by Lisa Eubanks, Steven Blake, Yoshihiro Natori, Beverly Ellis, Paul Bremer and Kim Janda.

Research was supported by National Institute on Drug Abuse [U01DA

In symbiosis: Plants control the genetics of microbes

UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA

Research News

IMAGE: EACH SPORE CONTAINS HUNDREDS OF NUCLEI. THE IMAGE WAS GENERATED USING CONFOCAL MICROSCOPY. THE BRIGHT SPOTS WITHIN THE SPORES REPRESENT NUCLEI LABELLED WITH FLUORESCENT DYE. IMAGES ARE COLOUR CODED ALONG... view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA/ MICROSCOPE LABORATORY (OTTAWA-RDC, AGRICULTURE AND AGRI-FOOD CANADA)

Researchers from the University of Ottawa have discovered that plants may be able to control the genetics of their intimate root symbionts - the organism with which they live in symbiosis - thereby providing a better understanding of their growth.

In addition to having a significant impact on all terrestrial ecosystems, their discovery may lead to improved eco-friendly agricultural applications.

We talked to research lead Nicolas Corradi, Associate Professor in the Department of Biology and Research Chair in Microbial Genomics at the University of Ottawa, and lead author Vasilis Kokkoris, Postdoctoral Fellow in the Corradi Lab, to learn more about their recent study published in the journal Current Biology.

Can you tell us more about your findings?

Nicolas Corradi: "We have uncovered a fascinating genetic regulation between plants and their microbial symbionts, known as Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (AMF).

AMF are plant obligate symbionts that grow within the plant roots and help their hosts to grow better and be more resistant to environmental stressors.

AMF genetics have long been mysterious; while typical cells carry one nucleus, the cells of AMF carry thousands of nuclei that can be genetically diverse. How these nuclei communicate with each other and whether the plants can control their relative abundance, has been a total mystery.

Our work provides insights into this unique genetic condition:

1- We demonstrate that the host plant symbiont influences the relative abundance of thousands of co-existing nuclei carried by their fungal symbionts.

2- We find evidence that co-existing nuclei of different genetic backgrounds cooperate, rather than compete with one another thus potentially maximizing growth benefits for both the fungi and their plant partners."

How did you come to these conclusions?

Vasilis Kokkoris: "We implemented a novel molecular approach accompanied by advanced microscopy and mathematical modelling. Every single AMF spore carries hundreds of nuclei (see image).

By analyzing single spores, we were able to quantify the genetics of thousands of nuclei and define their relative abundance in different fungal strains and across plant species.

To ensure that we accurately analyze single nuclei, we used advanced microscopy to visualize and count the nuclei in the spores.

Lastly, we used mathematical modelling to prove that the observed abundance of nuclear genotypes we identified cannot be a product of luck but instead is the result of a driven cooperation between them.

To better understand what is regulating the AMF nuclei we grew different AMF strains with different hosts and found that plants have control of the relative abundance of the fungal nuclei."

What are the impacts of your discovery?

Nicolas Corradi: "For many years, AMF have been considered to be genetic peculiarities and far away from model organisms. Inconsistencies are commonly observed in plant-AMF experiments. For example, growing the same fungal strain with different plants can lead to drastically different plant yields. For a long time, this variance in plant growth was blamed on the AMF mysterious genetics.

Our research provides an answer as we demonstrate that the genetics of these fungi, and their effect on plant growth, can be manipulated by plants thus explaining the reason for the observed variability on plant growth.

From an environmental standpoint, this new knowledge allows for better understanding how plants can influence the genetics of their symbiotic partners, thus influencing entire terrestrial ecosystems.

From an economic standpoint, it opens doors to improved sustainable agricultural applications."

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The research was led by the Corradi Lab, at the University of Ottawa and was conducted at the University of Ottawa and the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC). Two members of the Corradi lab, uOttawa PhD student Gökalp Yildirir and recent graduate Kelsey Clarke, also contributed to this study.

The other co-authors include Dr. Pierre-Luc Chagnon, Assistant Professor in the Department of biological sciences at the University of Montreal, Dr. Allyson M MacLean, Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Ottawa and her MSc student Dane Goh, and Dr. Jeremy Dettman and Dr. Franck Stefani from the Agriculture and Agri-food Canada (Ottawa Research and Development Centre).

The paper "Host identity influences nuclear dynamics in arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi" is published in the journal Current Biology.

ANIMAL TESTING

Scientists establish multiple primate models of SARS-CoV-2 airborne infection

US ARMY MEDICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES

Research News

 

Army scientists evaluated three nonhuman primate species as potential models of SARS-CoV-2 airborne infection, according to results published online this week in PLOS ONE. Their work demonstrates that any of these species may be useful for testing vaccines and therapies in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has resulted in over 104 million cases and more than 2 million deaths worldwide in the past year.

Given the global impact of COVID-19, experts are working rapidly to develop medical countermeasures, and testing in animal models is critically important to evaluate the efficacy of these products. Recent studies suggest that aerosol transmission may be the most prevalent route of human exposure to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Until now, however, the African green monkey was the only nonhuman primate model studied in efforts to replicate airborne transmission of the virus.

In this paper, first author Sara C. Johnston, Ph.D., and colleagues at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases analyzed two additional nonhuman primate species as potential models of COVID-19 in humans.

The team exposed cynomolgus macaques, rhesus macaques, and African green monkeys to SARS-CoV-2 using a model system invented at USAMRIID that generates a controlled dosage of highly respirable airborne particles within a sealed chamber. Scientists then monitored the animals for up to 18 days, documenting clinical disease findings and comparing them to human cases. All three species developed disease that resembled mild acute respiratory disease in human patients, and all had corresponding viral loads in nasal and throat swabs. Respiratory abnormalities and viral shedding also were observed for all animals.

"In general, the clinical disease characteristics we noted are similar to those described by others in the field," Johnston commented. "One exception is the presence of fever in all cynomolgus macaques on this study. This finding was exclusive to cynomolgus macaques and was detected only by using implanted body temperature-monitoring devices. Since fever is a hallmark of COVID-19 for human patients, this represents an important clinical finding."

Developing animal models is a complex process, according to Johnston. Variables include the species selected, the dose of virus used, and the route of exposure, with the goal being to combine these elements to create a model that replicates human disease as closely as possible.

JUST PUT EM IN A CAGE AND LET THEM GET SICK

Overall, the USAMRIID data indicate that macaques, in addition to African green monkeys, can be infected by airborne SARS-CoV-2, providing natural transmission models for evaluation of vaccines and treatments.

AFRICAN GREEN MONKEYS ARE A HOST FOR A NUMBER TRANSFERABLE DISEASES, EBOLA, HIV, ETC. TO HUMANS

THEY ARE REGULARLY USED IN MILITARY CB WARFARE EXPERIMENTS 

"In addition to determining critical disease parameters associated with disease progression, and establishing correlations between primate and human COVID-19, this work directly contributes to the advancement of medical countermeasures against the virus," said USAMRIID senior author Aysegul Nalca, M.D., Ph.D. She said the team's next step is to demonstrate the utility of these primate models for the continuing evaluation of vaccine and therapeutic candidates. Having more than one viable model in place, she added, will help to facilitate a more rapid deployment of new medical products to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic.

About the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases:

For over 50 years, USAMRIID has provided leading edge medical capabilities to deter and defend against current and emerging biological threat agents. The Institute is the only laboratory in the Department of Defense equipped to safely study highly hazardous viruses requiring maximum containment at Biosafety Level 4. Research conducted at USAMRIID leads to medical solutions - vaccines, drugs, diagnostics, information, and training programs - that benefit both military personnel and civilians. Established in 1969, the Institute plays a key role as the lead military medical research laboratory for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency's Joint Science and Technology Office for Chemical and Biological Defense. USAMRIID is a subordinate laboratory of the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command. For more information, visit http://www.usamriid.army.mil.

Reference:

"Development of a Coronavirus Disease 2019 nonhuman primate model using airborne exposure" is available at this link:
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0246366

Authors:

Sara C. Johnston, Keersten M. Ricks, Alexandra Jay, Jo Lynne Raymond, Franco Rossi, Xiankun Zeng, Jennifer Scruggs, David Dyer, Ondraya Frick, Jeffrey W. Koehler, Paul A. Kuehnert, Tamara L. Clements, Charles J. Shoemaker, Susan R. Coyne, Korey L. Delp, Joshua Moore, Kerry Berrier, Heather Esham, Joshua Shamblin, Willie Sifford, Jimmy Fiallos, Leslie Klosterman, Stephen Stevens, Lauren White, Philip Bowling, Terrence Garcia, Christopher Jensen, Jeanean Ghering, David Nyakiti, Stephanie Bellanca, Brian Kearney, Wendy Giles, Nazira Alli, Fabian Paz, Kristen Akers, Denise Danner, James Barth, Joshua A. Johnson, Matthew Durant, Ruth Kim, Jay W. Hooper, Jeffrey M. Smith, Jeffrey R. Kugelman, Brett F. Beitzel, Kathleen M. Gibson, Margaret LM Pitt, Timothy D. Minogue, and Aysegul Nalca, all of USAMRIID

Funding:

This research was supported by the Military Infectious Diseases Research Program.

http://libcom.org/library/beasts-burden-antagonism-practical-history

U.S. Air Force Academy intervention reduces unwanted sexual contact by over 40 percent

Study led by George Mason University College of Health and Human Services faculty finds that prevention program effectively reduces unwanted sexual contact among Air Force Cadets, addressing gap in rigorously tested interventions.

GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

 DR. KENNETH GRIFFIN LED THE STUDY THAT FOUND THAT THIS PREVENTION PROGRAM EFFECTIVELY REDUCED UNWANTED SEXUAL CONTACT AMONG AIR FORCE CADETS. view more 

CREDIT: GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY

Sexual assault and sexual harassment are significant problems in the U.S. military and military service academies in the United States. In 2018, 15.8% of female and 2.4% of male cadets and midshipmen across the military service academies reported unwanted sexual contact in the past year. This unwanted behavior can contribute to a variety of negative mental and behavioral health outcomes.

While the military service academies have implemented multiple sexual assault prevention programs and social marketing campaigns to improve awareness of and response to sexual assault, prevention initiatives have been hindered by an absence of evidence from rigorous research about what works.

Eliminating sexual assault in the military is a key focus of the Biden Administration's newly confirmed Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. As one of his first actions in office, Austin has ordered a review of military sexual assault prevention programs.

To address the gap in evidence-based interventions, Dr. Kenneth W. Griffin, professor at George Mason University's College of Health and Human Services, worked with colleagues to rigorously test the effectiveness of the Cadet Healthy Personal Skills (CHiPS) primary prevention program. CHiPS was developed by National Health Promotion Associates (NHPA) and tested in a randomized controlled trial among cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy (USAFA) by a research team led by Dr. Griffin. The results were published online in the American Journal of Public Health January 21, 2021.

Griffin and colleagues found a more than 40% reduction in unwanted sexual contact among U.S. Air Force cadets who participated in the CHiPS intervention compared to those who did not participate in the intervention.

"CHiPS is a small group preventive intervention, developed by NHPA for the U.S. Air Force Academy. The program is based on Botvin Life Skills Training, an evidence-based program which has proven effective at preventing substance abuse, violence, and sexual risk taking among adolescents," explains Griffin. "The intervention is designed to positively change social norms and bystander intervention behaviors surrounding sexual violence; increase knowledge and skills regarding obtaining consent for sexual activities; address the relationship between sexual violence and alcohol and substance abuse; and build social, self-regulation, and healthy relationship skills through interactive learning and behavioral rehearsal scenarios."

Their randomized control study included 832 participants, and the new program was implemented in the summer of 2018. About half of the incoming class of 2021 cadets were assigned to receive the prevention program and half were assigned to a control group.

The CHiPS intervention has been sustained at USAFA and implemented with the incoming classes of cadets each summer since the conclusion of this study. This suggests that the program is both effective and has high potential for institutionalization.

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This research was funded by the Department of Defense, United States Air Force, Contract Number FA7014-17-P-1006.

About George Mason University

George Mason University is Virginia's largest and most diverse public research university. Located near Washington, D.C., Mason enrolls 39,000 students from 130 countries and all 50 states. Mason has grown rapidly over the past half-century and is recognized for its innovation and entrepreneurship, remarkable diversity and commitment to accessibility. For more information, visit https://www2.gmu.edu/.

About the College of Health and Human Services

George Mason University's College of Health and Human Services prepares students to become leaders and shape the public's health through academic excellence, research of consequence, community outreach, and interprofessional clinical practice. George Mason is the fastest-growing Research I institution in the country. The College enrolls more than 1,900 undergraduate and 1,370 graduate students in its nationally-recognized offerings, including: 5 undergraduate degrees, 13 graduate degrees, and 7 certificate programs. The college is transitioning to a college of public health in the near future. For more information, visit https://chhs.gmu.edu/.

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