Humans provide massive amounts of food to wildlife, which may spread infectious diseases. Walsman et al. use math to show that food from humans may cause diseases of wildlife to evolve higher lethality.
Read now ahead of print!
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/738726
#Microsoft says #AI can create “zero day” threats in #biology, a #vulnerability in the #biosecurity systems used to prevent the misuse of #DNA.
These screening systems are designed to stop people from purchasing #genetic sequences that could be used to create deadly #toxins or #pathogens. But now researchers led by Microsoft’s chief scientist, Eric Horvitz, says they have figured out how to bypass the protections in a way previously unknown to defenders.
https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/10/02/1124767/microsoft-says-ai-can-create-zero-day-threats-in-biology/
🦇 🐀 #Rats filmed snatching #bats from air for first time.
Stunning hunting behaviour captured in German cave.
The four-year observational #study showed a small colony of 15 rats could hunt ~2,100 bats in one winter.
It showed rats hunting in total darkness, using whiskers to feel air currents from bat wings.
This may be a reason why potentially bat #pathogens like coronaviruses and paramyxoviruses are spilling over to rodents.
https://www.science.org/content/article/rats-filmed-snatching-bats-air-first-time
For the first time researchers have captured rats (Rattus norvegicus) hunting bats by grabbing them from the sky.
https://www.science.org/content/article/rats-filmed-snatching-bats-air-first-time
#bats #rats #InvasiveSpecies #pathogens
24-Oct-2025
#ancientDNA from #Napoleon’s 1812 army identifies the #pathogens likely responsible for the army’s demise during their retreat from #Russia
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1102129
#science #genome #medicine #history #CurrentBiology
🧬🤔 Breaking #news from 1812: #germs did it! Thanks, #DNA, for solving this ancient mystery just in time for...no one to care. 🚶♂️🔍 Can we blame these #pathogens for the article's lack of #relevance too? 📜💤
https://www.gavi.org/vaccineswork/dna-reveals-real-killers-brought-down-napoleons-army #ancientmystery #HackerNews #ngated
DNA analysis reveals likely pathogens that killed Napoleon’s army https://arstechni.ca/A2fs #forensicarchaeology #NapoleonBonaparte #DNAanalysis #pathogens #Science #Biology #History
#WHO Warns of Sharp Increase in Drug-Resistant Infections
The #UN #health agency found that one in six #infections worldwide was resistant to the most commonly available #antibiotics.
Across the world the spread of dangerous infections that do not respond to antibiotics has been increasing by as much as 15 percent a year, affecting treatment for urinary tract infections, gonorrhea, E. coli and other #pathogens that kill millions of people annually.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/13/health/who-antibiotic-drug-resistance.html
https://archive.ph/GkGph
#Plant NLRs help combat #pathogens. In the latest #JIPB commentary, Wang et al. discuss expanding functionalities of #immune receptors through simultaneous transfer of sensor and helper NLRs.
🔓 ➡️ https://doi.org/10.1111/jipb.70020
Wiley Plant Science
#PlantScience #agriculture #openaccess
Did prehistoric sheep carry plague? 🐑🦠 A 3rd-millennium BCE Yersinia pestis genome from domesticated sheep links livestock to human infections in prehistory. #MetagenomicsMonday #SPAAM #aDNA #plague #pathogens #yersiniapestis #sheep #zoonosis #infection #ancientpathogens
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2025.07.029
While humans have long used salicylic acid to relieve pain and inflammation, #plants produce it to defend against #pathogens. But how? Yan Li and Jie Luo explore its #biosynthesis from phenylalanine in a new #JIPB commentary!
https://doi.org/10.1111/jipb.70016
@wileyplantsci
#PlantScience #botany #FreeAccess
Adding these to your #diet is a #preventativehealth measure against #bacterialinfections, as it helps fight to invade #pathogens when you are already infected. And it assists with #boosting good bacteria in the #gut #microbiome and #reducesinflammation in the body. #angstromminerals #healthylifestyle #naturalsupplements
GET SILVER HERE--->>> https://angstrom-minerals.com/collect.../silver-products
GET APPLE CIDER VINAGER GUMMIES HERE--->>> https://www.angstrom-minerals.com/?dt_id=2139817
As climate change warms ocean waters, Vibrio bacteria diseases are spreading northward along many coastlines #pathogens
Ever since they stopped monitoring multiple different #Foodborne #Pathogens a few months ago, I have gotten regularly sick definitely it being food poisoning basically every other week. Refrigerator is totally fine. The items that I purchase are packaged and handled properly. There isn’t a single specific food item that seems to stand out in a pattern. It seems to be multiple things. Some milk was definitely bad in unopened cartons, but that’s the only thing that had some telltale signs.
“ #covid-19 may somehow impair the immune system’s “memory” of past infections, potentially making even healthy people more vulnerable to future #pathogens.” www.bmj.com/content/390/...
Why scientists are rethinking ...
#Drumpf era #CDC has stopped monitoring for several factors it once tracked for foodborne illness outbreaks. As of July 1, a critical surveillance program is ordered to only monitori for two pathogens instead of the previous eight.
Currently only two #pathogens: #salmonella and #Shiga toxin-producing E. coli are being tracked federally, now ignored are #campylobacter, #cyclospora, #listeria, #shigella, #vibrio and #Yersinia.
Why are there so few #pathogens, and what determines their emergence? This #PLOSBiology Perspective argues that #ecological and #evolutionary forces (host availability, geographic exposure and microbial innovation) will shape future human diseases.
https://plos.io/4mUst87
last year's feature on #travelling #pathogens from #plague to #covid19 is now in the #OpenArchives. #FreeAccess for all. https://proseandpassion.blogspot.com/2024/08/travelling-pathogens.html #science #ecology #publicHealth #travel #history
#Animal #diseases leapt to #humans when we started keeping #livestock
When #huntergatherers began living close to animals, the #pathogens that cause the #plague and #leprosy got closer too.
The #genomic study identified 5,486 #DNA sequences from #bacteria, #viruses and #parasites in blood remnants from bones and teeth spanning 37,000 years. #Zoonotic pathogens were detected only in remains 6,500 years old or younger.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02165-x
