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Now, I would like to turn the call over to your host

for today, Ms. Ria Ghai.

Ms. Ghai, you may begin.

>> Thanks so much, Brad.

Good afternoon everyone.

My name's Ria Ghai, and I work at the One Health office

of the National Center of Emerging

and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases at the Center

for Disease Control and Prevention.

On behalf of the One Health office,

I'm pleased to welcome you to the monthly Zoonoses

and One Health Update call for today, February 5th, 2020.

ZOHU calls content is directed to epidemiologists,

laboratorians, scientists, physicians, nurses,

veterinarians, animal health officials

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or commercial supporters.

Before we begin today's presentation, Colin Basler,

a veterinarian epidemiologist with CDC's National Center

for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases will share

some news and updates.

Colin, please go ahead.

>> Thanks, Ria.

Hi everyone.

Thanks for joining us for today's ZOHU call,

and welcome to our new participants.

The ZOHU call audience continues to grow

with subscribers representing professionals from government,

nongovernment organizations, industry

and academia, including students.

We appreciate your help spreading the word

about the ZOHU call.

Please continue to share the ZOHU call website link

with your colleagues from human, animal, environment

and other relevant sectors.

The site includes links to past call recordings,

information on free continuing education for a variety

of professionals and a link to subscribe

to the ZOHU call email list.

To begin today's call, I'd like to share some highlights

from the One Health News from CDC included

in today's ZOHU call email newsletter.

CDC's latest antibiotic resistance investments map is

now available.

And the United Nations has declared 2020 the international

year of plant health.

Some upcoming conferences include two here in Atlanta.

The 2020 Inform Conference will be from March 9th

through the 12th, and the 2020 Epidemic Intelligence Service

(EIS) Conference will be from May 4th through 7th.

Applications are being accepted

for the David J. Sencer Scholarship

to attend the EIS conference.

We've shared links to recent publications

on several topics including: pool code updates and use

of the model aquatic health code in the local jurisdictions;

rabies outbreak in captive big brown bats used

in white-nose syndrome vaccine trials; and the AVMA guidelines

for the euthanasia of animals, the 2020 edition,

has just been published.

Recent publications in the Morbidity

and Mortality Weekly Report

of interest include Candida auris isolates resistant

to three classes of antifungal medications, New York, 2019.

Notes from the field about the 2019 multistate outbreak

of Eastern equine encephalitis virus.

And a third publication

that just went live a few minutes ago,

the MMWR on the initial public health response

and interim guidance for the 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak,

United States, December 31st, 2019 to February 4th, 2020.

Regarding outbreaks, CDC is closely monitoring an outbreak

of respiratory illness called

by a novel coronavirus first identified in Wuhan,

Hubei Province, China.

Please see CDC's website for more information,

travel recommendations and resources.

A new outbreak of salmonella infections list

to small pet turtles has been posted.

And updates for outbreaks of E. coli infections linked

to romaine lettuce and Fresh Express Sunflower Crips Chopped

Salad Kits have also been posted.

A selected list of ongoing and past U.S. outbreaks

of zoonotic diseases, as well as information on staying safe

and healthy around animals, is available on CDC's healthy pets,

healthy people website.

The complete CDC current outbreak list,

including foodborne outbreaks is available at CDC.gov/outbreaks.

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from your organization or if you want

to suggest presentation topics or volunteer to present,

please contact us at ZOHUcall@CDC.gov.

Again, thank you for supporting the ZOHU call

and for joining us today.

We've got an exciting lineup of speakers and topics,

and I'll now turn the call back over to Ria.

>> Thanks so much, Colin.

Today's presentations will address one or more

of the following objectives.

Describe two key points from each presentation.

To describe how a multisectoral One Health approach can be

applied to the presentation topics.

To identify an implication for animal and human health.

To identify a One Health approach strategy

for prevention, detection or response

to public health threats.

Or finally, to identify two new resources from CDC partners.

Questions for all presenters will be taken

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and enter participant passcode 6236326.

Then press star one and give the operator your name

and affiliation.

Please name the presenter or topic

at the beginning of each question.

You'll find resources and links for all presentations

on our website an in today's ZOHU call email.

I'm now excited to announce our first presentation

which is called Ticks, Tortoises and Tick-borne Relapsing Fever

in the Mojave Desert which will be given by Molly June Bechtel.

Molly, please go ahead and begin when you're ready.

>> Thank you.

So, today I'm going to talk

about a very understudied relationship between a vector

and its host, the desert tortoise, in the Mojave Desert.

I'm going to start by giving some background

on the Mojave Desert tortoise.

The Mojave Desert tortoises are keystone species.

They create a lot of habitat with their burrows for a myriad

of species from rodents to birds to even insects.

Unfortunately, their populations have been declining

since the 80s, and they were listed as threatened

by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services in 1990.

Tortoise populations are monitored because in order

to keep tabs on the populations, per government regulation,

and we look for things like clinical signs of disease

as well as other morphometrics just like size

of the tortoise and weight.

Ticks are also often noted

on these tortoise health assessments.

In fact, ticks are known

to commonly parasitize desert tortoises,

and the two species we know

that do commonly parasitize tortoises are ornithodoros

parkeri and ornithodoros turicatae.

They're often called tortoise ticks,

especially in the tortoise literature.

Mostly because they're difficult to identify.

You have to count the number of bumps on the back,

on their backs to be able

to distinguish the two species apart.

Or they're also just listed as ornithodoros species

when they're found on tortoises.

So, these are soft ticks,

and their biology is a little bit different than hard ticks.

They are nidicolous, meaning that they like to be

in dark burrows and dark places.

Tortoises really create excellent habitat

for these guys and their burrows.

They're generalists, which means they're not specific

to one particular species for the blood meal.

They'll feed on anything, any animal that comes their way.

And they commonly parasitize other tortoises.

They're also vectors of the causative agent

of tick-borne relapsing fever.

Tick-borne relapsing fever is caused by a wide variety

of species in the genus Borrelia.

It's a familiar genus because Lyme disease is also caused

by a species of Borrelia.

But I'm going to be focusing on the relapsing fever Borrelia

that occur in the new world.

And you can see the new world clade include three species

of Borrelia, two of which are specialized

with their tick factor, ornithodoros parkeri

and ornithodoros turicatae, that occur in the Mojave Desert

and parasitize desert tortoises.

Both species of Borrelia cause tick-borne relapsing fever

or TBRF in people.

TBRF is characterized by high fever,

around 103 to 105 degrees.

Headache, muscle and joint aches, symptoms very similar

to the flu, except these symptoms will reoccur.

So usually with a fever and other symptoms lasting

for about three days followed

by a febrile period for about a week.

And then those symptoms will return for another three days.

This cycle can occur several times without treatment.

Sometimes symptoms will resolve on their own, but it's treated

with antibiotics like doxycycline.

And this could also occur and passed if they get bit

by a tick carrying relapsing fever group Borrelia,

which is dogs.

These relapses are due to the ability of a Borrelia

to undergo multiple cyclic anagenic variations.

So, what happens is Borrelia invades our antibodies

by switching the surface proteins they express

and become unrecognizable to the immune system.

These relapses can make TBRF difficult to diagnose, but also,

people will go into the doctor, complain of symptoms

that are very similar to the flu,

and they'll be prescribed antibiotics and get better.

And then they're never tested for TBRF.

So, it's thought that TBRF is underreported.

Regardless, ticks are common in desert tortoise habitat

and do come in contact with people, which suggests

that they are a transmission risk.

But very little is known about the ticks in the Mojave,

and even less is known about the relationship

to their host, the desert tortoise.

We do know, though, that about 10%

of wild desert tortoises are sampled are parasitized

by ticks, and almost half

of all active tortoise burrows are invested,

particular with ornithodoros parkeri.

So, we also know that tortoises create habitats for rodents,

which are documented as reservoirs

of TBRF Borrelia group in other parts of the country.

So tortoises may not even be a part

of this transmission cycle other than serving as a source

of nutrition and creating habitat for these ticks.

But the fact remains that tortoise biologists do come

in contact with these tick species as well as hundreds

of pet owners in Las Vegas who have adopted desert tortoises.

And these ticks are competent vectors of a pathogen

that is harmful to people.

So there is a to be addressed of transmission,

and doctors should consider tick-borne relapsing fever.

In fact, we do have two cases to illustrate

that it is a transmission risk.