NAU Disease Ecologist presents research on ‘stealthy’ pathogens

As part of the NAU Research Spotlight Lecture Series, a highlight of the Flagstaff Festival of Science, Associate Professor Jeff Foster, PhD, of NAU’s Pathogen and Microbiome Institute, will discuss his latest research through an online presentation entitled, “Bacterial Hitchhikers: How Global Migration Spreads Infectious Diseases Through Livestock,” from 6:30 – 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 29. Since ancient times, humans have moved around the world, bringing livestock—and their diseases—with them. From anthrax to brucellosis, Foster will show how these dangerous pathogens have been spread and how they affect human and animal health.

“As humans have spread across the globe, we have often brought our animals with us, from pigs and cattle, to goats, sheep and dogs. And unwittingly, we have transported and spread the pathogens in those animals. 

“Take cattle, for example, where humans have introduced them globally for meat and milk but have also brought their diseases such as anthrax and brucellosis. This talk will focus on genomic approaches in bacterial pathogens as a tool to look back in time, with a particular focus on Brucella, a stealthy pathogen that has defied eradication and control efforts. Most of us no longer worry what pathogens may be lurking in our milk, but for much of the world, food-borne illness and transmission of diseases from animals to people remain a pervasive and continuous threat.”

Foster, whose research focuses on pathogen evolution and disease ecology in wildlife, chiefly bats and birds, recently launched a new effort to study brucellosis, one of the most important infectious diseases in humans and livestock in Iraq. Foster is the principal investigator on the three-year project funded through a $3 million grant from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) of the U.S. Department of Defense.

Although the disease was eradicated long ago in the U.S., Canada and parts of Western Europe, brucellosis—caused by the highly infectious bacteria Brucella—remains among the leading communicable diseases worldwide, infecting an estimated 500,000 people and millions of animals each year, including cattle, pigs, sheep, goats and camels. As in many other developing regions, the disease poses a substantial public health burden In the Middle East, resulting in long-term illness in humans and significant economic loss in livestock production.

“Although livestock can be cured, it takes weeks and sometimes months of antibiotic treatment, which is not economically feasible. The animals become infertile because of the disease, causing a devastating loss of production. Farmers can’t afford to slaughter animals with brucellosis. It causes problems when they try to sell meat and dairy products that have Brucella—and then it puts people at risk for infection.”

Because the disease is widespread, difficult to effectively control and highly infectious, some Brucella are classified as Category B bioterrorism agents by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 

“I’m really excited for this work in Iraq,” Foster said. “One of the keys to a successful project is finding really good collaborators to work with. That’s what happened here. I’m excited by the disease, I’m excited by the Iraqi and U.S. collaborators. It’s a really important disease, and it’s worth this type of investment by the government. One of DTRA’s goals is to help researchers in countries like Iraq by providing training and assist with research on infectious diseases—mostly focusing on the scary ones like brucellosis.”  

The team will train researchers on the latest techniques in microbiological and epidemiological research, biosafety and genomic analyses as well as tracking the pathogen, which Foster calls a ‘stealthy’ pathogen. “It’s a pretty cool bug,” he said. “There are particular cells in the body that attack pathogens, and in the case of Brucella, it gets inside the cells that are sent to attack it, so other immune cells can’t find it.”

Foster is also working on another study of brucellosis in Georgia, Turkey and Azerbaijan, and will use a very similar approach with this project in Iraq, building on the findings of his previous research.

Join Associate Professor Jeff Foster, PhD, and learn about his latest research through an online presentation entitled, “Bacterial Hitchhikers: How Global Migration Spreads Infectious Diseases Through Livestock,” from 6:30 – 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 29.

Webinar registration required.