Biology subjects

Gibison, M.

Publications and source records attributed to Gibison, M..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

A Wildlife Health Outbreak Response Table-top Exercise for Pandemic Preparedness Planning

Zoonotic diseases have received significantly more attention over the last few decades, emerging with increasing frequency and causing the majority of notable disease outbreaks in this century, including the COVID-19 pandemic. As human activities and shifting climate patterns induce changes in the environment that alter habitat and range of reservoir species, the potential for human and animal interactions will increase and enhance the opportunity for spillover. Thus, any emergency response preparedness planning must take into account the function and coordination of agencies across the sectors of human, animal and environmental health. Within the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania a table-top exercise was performed to evaluate a multi-agency response during a hypothetical zoonotic disease investigation. The exercise was evaluated by the participants to gain feedback on the overall process and lessons learned. Here, we describe the tabletop exercise scenario and the insights gained. We found that differences in operational structure create challenges for interdepartmental communication and in the ability to resource a coordinated response, highlighting opportunities to develop infrastructure that will facilitate future actions. A set of recommendations are outlined that may enhance cross-agency activities and promote more effective and efficient emergency response.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2025

Sensitive, non-invasive detection of chronic wasting disease in wild and captive white-tailed deer using fecal volatile profiling

Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) is a universally fatal, transmissible prion disease affecting cervids. Primarily found among deer populations in North America, the disease has spread across the continent and made forays into Europe and Asia as well. Currently, accurate methods for detecting CWD infection require post-mortem dissection of the lymph nodes and brainstem of affected animals. New, high-sensitivity methods of detecting CWD in living animals are sorely needed to help curb spread of this devastating disease in farmed and wild deer. Here, we use two-dimensional gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GCxGC-MS) to detect volatile organic compounds (VOCs) released from the feces of white-tailed deer (WTD) for differentiation of the feces of CWD-negative and CWD-positive animals. We report four discrete VOCs in captive WTD and ten discrete VOCs in wild WTD, with which we can discriminate CWD-positive and CWD-negative samples. Additionally, we evaluate the ability to detect CWD early during disease progression, by comparing samples from the early stage of infection with samples from late stage and uninfected WTD. Our data suggest that detection of VOCs from the feces of WTD -- both in captive and wild populations -- can serve as a highly sensitive and non-invasive technique for identifying CWD infection in living animals.

microbiology↗

bioRxiv2023

Fecal microbiomics biomarkers for Chronic Wasting Disease

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a naturally occurring prion disease in cervids that has been rapidly proliferating in the US. Here we investigated a potential link between CWD infection and gut microbiome by analyzing 50 fecal samples obtained from CWD-positive animals of different sexes from various regions in the US, compared to 50 CWD-negative controls using high throughput sequencing of the 16S ribosomal RNA and targeted metabolomics. Our analysis reveals promising trends in the gut microbiota that could potentially be CWD-dependent, including several bacterial taxa at each rank level, as well as taxa pairs, that can differentiate between CWD-negative and CWD-positive deer. At each rank level, these taxa and taxa pairs could facilitate identification of around 70% of both the CWD-negative and the CWD-positive samples. Our results provide a potential tool for diagnostics and surveillance of CWD in the wild, as well as conceptual advances in our understanding of the disease. ImportanceThis is a comprehensive study that tests the connection between the composition of the gut microbiome in deer in response to Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD). We analyzed 50 fecal samples obtained from CWD-positive animals compared to 50 CWD-negative controls to identify CWD-dependent changes in the gut microbiome, matched with the analysis of fecal metabolites. Our results show promising trends suggesting that fecal microbial composition can directly correspond to CWD disease status. These results point to microbial composition of the feces as a potential tool for diagnostics and surveillance of CWD in the wild, including non-invasive CWD detection in asymptomatic deer and deer habitats, and enable conceptual advances in our understanding of the disease.

microbiology↗