A team of researchers from the United Kingdom has developed a novel method for assessing human/pathogen interactions in the natural environment, using citizen scientists wearing boot socks over their shoes during walks in the countryside. In the process, they found that slightly less than half of the socks were positive for the gastrointestinal pathogen, Campylobacter. The research is published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology.
A team of researchers from the United Kingdom has developed a novel method for assessing human/pathogen interactions in the natural environment, using citizen scientists wearing boot socks over their shoes during walks in the countryside. In the process, they found that slightly less than half of the socks were positive for the gastrointestinal pathogen, Campylobacter. The research is published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology.
In the study, groups of volunteer walkers wearing boot socks on one foot took regular four kilometer (two and a half mile) walks on each of six pathways in the countryside, over a 16 month period. The pathways are located in two regions of the UK, the livestock-dominated North West, and East Anglia, much of which is devoted to cropland, said coauthor Natalia Jones, PhD, Senior Research Associate, University of East Anglia.
Following the walks, the walkers mailed the socks to the lab, where coauthors used microbial culture and PCR methods to determine the presence, and species of Campylobacter.
Read more at American Society for Microbiology
Photo credit: De Wood, Pooley, USDA, ARS, EMU via Wikimedia Commons
