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Knowledge of what pest species are eating is important to determine their impact on stored food products and to plan management strategies accordingly. In this study, we investigated the food habits of 2 rodents, Rattus rattus (ship rat) and Mus musculus castaneus (house mouse) as well as an insectivore, Suncus murinus (shrew), present in human dwellings. Both a microhistological approach and a DNA barcoding approach were used in the present study. Following DNA extraction, amplification was performed using group-specific primers targeting birds, plants and invertebrates. Resulting polymerase chain reaction products were sequenced and analyzed to identify the different prey species present in the gut contents. The findings from the application of both techniques were in agreement, but the detection of prey type with each technique was different. The DNA barcoding approach gave greater species-level identification when compared to the microhistological method, especially for the invertebrate and avian prey. Overall, with both techniques, 23 prey taxa were identified in the gut contents of the 3 species, including 15 plants, 7 insects and a single bird species. We conclude that with a selection of suitable "barcode genes" and optimization of polymerase chain reaction protocols, DNA barcoding can provide more accurate and faster results. Prey detection from either technique alone can bias the dietary information. Hence, combining prey information of both microhistological analysis and DNA barcoding is recommended to study pest diet, especially if the pest is an omnivore or insectivore species.

Zoonotic TB is a significant public health issue among professionally exposed groups in Peshawar, Pakistan and suggests a need for further detailed investigations of the disease in this and similar areas.

Background: The co-occurrence of diabetes mellitus (DM) and tuberculosis (TB) is largely associated with high frequency of morbidity. Objective: To determine the prevalence of DM among TB patients and describe the socio-demographic and behavioral factors associated with TB-DM co-occurrence . Methods: We enrolled 500 TB patients from September, 2014 to August 2015 at four major public sector hospitals of Lahore, Pakistan. A questionnaire was used to collect information regarding associated socio-demographic and behavioral factors of the patients. We monitored the fasting blood sugar of each patient by using a semi automated clinical chemistry analyzer followed by an HbA1c level check of all hyperglycemic patients. Results: The prevalence of TB-DM co-occurrence was 14.8%. The prevalence of TB-DM was higher (62.2%) among males. The >57 year age group had the highest proportion of patients (35.1%), with co-existent TB-DM. Most were illiterate (73.0%) and unemployed (48%). Moreover, among the 74 patients positive for TB-DM had a history of smoking. Age and education level were significantly associated with DM-TB while gender, occupation and smoking were not associated. Conclusion:The study revealed a 14.8% prevalence of DM among TB patients. This was associated with several socio-demographic factors, including age, unemployment, literacy and polluted environment. Thus, poor and unhealthy lifestyles were the factors associated with DM among immunologically compromised individuals due to TB. Keywords: Tuberculosis (TB), diabetes mellitus (DM), socio-demographic and behavioral factors.

BackgroundAeromonas hydrophila is a potential zoonotic pathogen and primary fish pathogen. With overlapping characteristics, multiple isolates are often mislabelled and misclassified. Moreover, the potential pathogenic factors among the publicly available genomes in A. hydrophila strains of different origins have not yet been investigated.ResultsTo identify the valid strains of A. hydrophila and their pathogenic factors, we performed a pan-genomic study. It revealed that there were 13 mislabelled strains and 49 valid strains that were further verified by Average nucleotide identity (ANI), digital DNA-DNA hybridization (dDDH) and in silico multiple locus strain typing (MLST). Multiple numbers of phages were detected among the strains and among them Aeromonas phi 018 was frequently present. The diversity in type III secretion system (T3SS) and conservation of type II and type VI secretion systems (T2SS and T6SS, respectively) among all the strains are important to study for designing future strategies. The most prevalent antibiotic resistances were found to be beta-lactamase, polymyxin and colistin resistances. The comparative analyses of sequence type (ST) 251 and other ST groups revealed that there were higher numbers of virulence factors in ST-251 than in other STs group.ConclusionPublicly available genomes have 13 mislabelled organisms, and there are only 49 valid A. hydrophila strains. This valid pan-genome identifies multiple prophages that can be further utilized. Different A. hydrophila strains harbour multiple virulence factors and antibiotic resistance genes. Identification of such factors is important for designing future treatment regimes.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12864-018-5100-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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