ArticleBMC veterinary research2019
Melioidosis fatalities in captive slender-tailed meerkats (Suricata suricatta): combining epidemiology, pathology and whole-genome sequencing supports variable mechanisms of transmission with one health implications.
Article in BMC veterinary research, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 11 citations in OpenAlex.
- Successful treatment of pulmonary melioidosis in an Australian dog.Australian veterinary journal · 2026Article
- Melioidosis in companion animals: Analysis of 45 Australian cases (24 dogs; 21 cats) from 1997 to 2025 and a brief review of the animal and human literature.Australian veterinary journal · 2026Review
- Treatment of melioidosis in cats and dogs: antimicrobial therapy and clinical guidance for Burkholderia pseudomallei infections.Australian veterinary journal · 2026Article
- Environmental Presence of Burkholderia pseudomallei at Military Sites in an Endemic Region: Implications for Future Deployments and Studies.The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene · 2026Article
- Rapid detection of antibiotic resistance in Burkholderia pseudomallei using MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Melioidosis in goats at a single Australian farm was caused by multiple diverse lineages of Burkholderia pseudomallei present in soil.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2024Article
- Pathology and causes of death in captive meerkats (The veterinary quarterly · 2023Article
- Using Genomics to Understand the Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases in the Northern Territory of Australia.Tropical medicine and infectious disease · 2022Review
- Genomic Epidemiology Links Burkholderia pseudomallei from Individual Human Cases to B. pseudomallei from Targeted Environmental Sampling in Northern Australia.Journal of clinical microbiology · 2022Article
- Emergence of Burkholderia pseudomallei Sequence Type 562, Northern Australia.Emerging infectious diseases · 2021Article
- A Persisting Nontropical Focus of Burkholderia pseudomallei with Limited Genome Evolution over Five Decades.mSystems · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundMelioidosis is a tropical infectious disease which is being increasingly recognised throughout the globe. Infection occurs in humans and animals, typically through direct exposure to soil or water containing the environmental bacterium Burkholderia pseudomallei. Case clusters of melioidosis have been described in humans following severe weather events and in exotic animals imported into melioidosis endemic zones. Direct transmission of B. pseudomallei between animals and/or humans has been documented but is considered extremely rare. Between March 2015 and October 2016 eight fatal cases of melioidosis were reported in slender-tailed meerkats (Suricata suricatta) on display at a Wildlife Park in Northern Australia. To further investigate the melioidosis case cluster we sampled the meerkat enclosure and adjacent park areas and performed whole-genome sequencing (WGS) on all culture-positive B. pseudomallei environmental and clinical isolates.
resultsWGS confirmed that the fatalities were caused by two different B. pseudomallei sequence types (STs) but that seven of the meerkat isolates were highly similar on the whole-genome level. Used concurrently with detailed pathology data, our results demonstrate that the seven cases originated from a single original source, but routes of infection varied amongst meerkats belonging to the clonal outbreak cluster. Moreover, in some instances direct transmission may have transpired through wounds inflicted while fighting.
conclusionsCollectively, this study supports the use of high-resolution WGS to enhance epidemiological investigations into transmission modalities and pathogenesis of melioidosis, especially in the instance of a possible clonal outbreak scenario in exotic zoological collections. Such findings from an animal outbreak have important One Health implications.
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