Titel Deelnemers "Korte inhoud" "Seroprevalence of Ascaris suum compared to milk spot prevalence at slaughter in Italian fattening pigs" "Alice Vismarra, Antonio Lenti, Marco Genchi, Laura Kramer, Peter Geldhof" "Ascaris suum is one of the most important parasites of pigs. Apart from liver condemnation due to lesions caused by migrating larvae (""milk spots""), A. suum infections can compromise weight gain, feed conversion efficacy, as well as meat quality. The true prevalence of infection depends on the diagnostic test used and is often under-estimated. We compared liver inspection at slaughter with serology, based on the recognition of a purified A. suum haemoglobin or complete homogenate of the 3rd stage larvae isolated from lungs, in nine pig farms in northern Italy. Liver lesions were found on all farms with prevalence ranging from 3.8% to 98.3%. All farms were also positive for circulating antibodies against As-Hb and As-Lung-L3, with prevalence among pigs on each farm ranging from 36.4-100% and 54.5-100%, respectively. Seroprevalence was consistently higher when compared to the prevalence of milk spots at slaughter. The higher sensitivity of the ELISA tests combined with their ease of use makes them an interesting tool to evaluate A. suum infection levels." "Nature portfoliobenzimidazole resistance in cattle : the first report of the presence of F200Y mutation in cooperia in Ecuador" "Pamela Vinueza Veloz, Marlon Calispa, Luis Condolo, Paula Toalombo, Peter Geldhof" "A general framework to support cost-efficient fecal egg count methods and study design choices for large-scale STH deworming programs-monitoring of therapeutic drug efficacy as a case study" "Luc E Coffeng, Johnny Vlaminck, Piet Cools, Matthew Denwood, Marco Albonico, Shaali M Ame, Mio Ayana, Daniel Dana, Giuseppe Cringoli, Sake J de Vlas, Alan Fenwick, Michael French, Adama Kazienga, Jennifer Keiser, Stefanie Knopp, Gemechu Leta, Leonardo F Matoso, Maria P Maurelli, Antonio Montresor, Greg Mirams, Zeleke Mekonnen, Rodrigo Corrêa-Oliveira, Simone A Pinto, Laura Rinaldi, Somphou Sayasone, Peter Steinmann, Eurion Thomas, Jozef Vercruysse, Bruno Levecke" "Background Soil-transmitted helminth (STH) control programs currently lack evidence-based recommendations for cost-efficient survey designs for monitoring and evaluation. Here, we present a framework to provide evidence-based recommendations, using a case study of therapeutic drug efficacy monitoring based on the examination of helminth eggs in stool. Methods We performed an in-depth analysis of the operational costs to process one stool sample for three diagnostic methods (Kato-Katz, Mini-FLOTAC and FECPAK(G2)). Next, we performed simulations to determine the probability of detecting a truly reduced therapeutic efficacy for different scenarios of STH species (Ascaris lumbricoides, Trichuris trichiura and hookworms), pre-treatment infection levels, survey design (screen and select (SS); screen, select and retest (SSR) and no selection (NS)) and number of subjects enrolled (100-5,000). Finally, we integrated the outcome of the cost assessment into the simulation study to estimate the total survey costs and determined the most cost-efficient survey design. Principal findings Kato-Katz allowed for both the highest sample throughput and the lowest cost per test, while FECPAK(G2) required both the most laboratory time and was the most expensive. Counting of eggs accounted for 23% (FECPAK(G2)) or =80% (Kato-Katz and Mini-FLOTAC) of the total time-to-result. NS survey designs in combination with Kato-Katz were the most cost-efficient to assess therapeutic drug efficacy in all scenarios of STH species and endemicity. Conclusions/significance We confirm that Kato-Katz is the fecal egg counting method of choice for monitoring therapeutic drug efficacy, but that the survey design currently recommended by WHO (SS) should be updated. Our generic framework, which captures laboratory time and material costs, can be used to further support cost-efficient choices for other important surveys informing STH control programs. In addition, it can be used to explore the value of alternative diagnostic techniques, like automated egg counting, which may further reduce operational costs." "Severe udder cleft dermatitis lesion transcriptomics points to an impaired skin barrier, defective wound repair and a dysregulated inflammatory response as key elements in the pathogenesis" "Anne-Sofie Vermeersch, Mohsin Ali, Yannick Gansemans, Filip Van Nieuwerburgh, Peter Geldhof, Richard Ducatelle, Dieter Deforce, Jozefien Callens, Geert Opsomer" "This study is the first to investigate the transcriptomic changes occurring in severe udder cleft dermatitis lesions (UCD) in Holstein-Friesian cows. An examination of the gene expression levels in natural UCD lesions and healthy udder skin through RNA Seq-Technology provided a deeper insight into the inflammatory pathways associated with this disease. A clear distinction between the gene expression patterns of UCD lesions and healthy skin was shown in the principal component analysis. Genes coding for inflammatory molecules were upregulated such as the chemokines C-X-C motif ligand 2 (CXCL2), 5 (CXCL5) and 8 (CXCL8), and C-C motif ligand 11 (CCL11). Moreover, the genes coding for the multifunctional molecules ADAM12 and SLPI were amongst the highest upregulated ones, whereas the most downregulated genes included the ones coding for keratins and keratin-associated molecules. Predominantly inflammatory pathways such as the chemokine signaling, cytokine receptor interaction and IL-17 signaling pathway were significantly upregulated in the pathway analysis. These results point towards a fulminant, dysregulated inflammatory response concomitant with a disruption of the skin barrier integrity and a hampered wound repair mechanism in severe UCD lesions." "Assessment of environmental contamination with soil-transmitted helminths life stages at school compounds, households and open markets in Jimma Town, Ethiopia" "Bamlaku Tadege, Zeleke Mekonnen, Daniel Dana, Bizuwarek Sharew, Eden Dereje, Eskindir Loha, Jaco J. Verweij, Stijn Casaert, Johnny Vlaminck, Mio Ayana Heda, Bruno Levecke" "Comparison of coproprevalence and seroprevalence to guide decision-making in national soil-transmitted helminthiasis control programs : Ethiopia as a case study" "Sara Roose, Gemechu Tadesse Leta, Johnny Vlaminck, Birhanu Getachew, Kalkidan Mekete, Iris Peelaers, Peter Geldhof, Bruno Levecke" "New insights into the use of serology as diagnostic tool for soil-transmitted helminth infections in humans" "Sarah Roose, Daniel Dana Medebo, Gemechu Tadesse Leta, Mio Ayana Heda, Johnny Vlaminck, Peter Geldhof, Bruno Levecke" "Affordable artificial intelligence-based digital pathology for neglected tropical diseases : a proof-of-concept for the detection of soil-transmitted helminths and Schistosoma mansoni eggs in Kato-Katz stool thick smears" "Peter Ward, Peter Dahlberg, Ole Lagatie, Joel Larsson, August Tynong, Johnny Vlaminck, Matthias Zumpe, Shaali Ame, Mio Ayana, Virak Khieu, Zeleke Mekonnen, Maurice Odiere, Tsegaye Yohannes, Sofie Van Hoecke, Bruno Levecke, Lieven J. Stuyver" "BackgroundWith the World Health Organization's (WHO) publication of the 2021-2030 neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) roadmap, the current gap in global diagnostics became painfully apparent. Improving existing diagnostic standards with state-of-the-art technology and artificial intelligence has the potential to close this gap. Methodology/Principal findingsWe prototyped an artificial intelligence-based digital pathology (AI-DP) device to explore automated scanning and detection of helminth eggs in stool prepared with the Kato-Katz (KK) technique, the current diagnostic standard for diagnosing soil-transmitted helminths (STHs; Ascaris lumbricoides, Trichuris trichiura and hookworms) and Schistosoma mansoni (SCH) infections. First, we embedded a prototype whole slide imaging scanner into field studies in Cambodia, Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania. With the scanner, over 300 KK stool thick smears were scanned, resulting in total of 7,780 field-of-view (FOV) images containing 16,990 annotated helminth eggs (Ascaris: 8,600; Trichuris: 4,083; hookworms: 3,623; SCH: 684). Around 90% of the annotated eggs were used to train a deep learning-based object detection model. From an unseen test set of 752 FOV images containing 1,671 manually verified STH and SCH eggs (the remaining 10% of annotated eggs), our trained object detection model extracted and classified helminth eggs from co-infected FOV images in KK stool thick smears, achieving a weighted average precision (+/- standard deviation) of 94.9% +/- 0.8% and a weighted average recall of 96.1% +/- 2.1% across all four helminth egg species. Conclusions/SignificanceWe present a proof-of-concept for an AI-DP device for automated scanning and detection of helminth eggs in KK stool thick smears. We identified obstacles that need to be addressed before the diagnostic performance can be evaluated against the target product profiles for both STH and SCH. Given that these obstacles are primarily associated with the required hardware and scanning methodology, opposed to the feasibility of AI-based results, we are hopeful that this research can support the 2030 NTDs road map and eventually other poverty-related diseases for which microscopy is the diagnostic standard. Author summaryRecently, the World Health Organization (WHO) published its 2021-2030 road map for neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). While diagnostics are clearly pivotal to steer the NTD endemic countries towards the ambitious targets set, the current gap in the global diagnostic armamentarium for NTDs once more becomes painfully apparent. As most NTD programs mainly rely on microscopic examination of slides, automation of slide scanning coupled with artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to close this diagnostic gap by 2030. Therefore, we developed a device to automate scanning of stool smears and deployed it in four endemic countries to build an image data base for both intestinal and blood-dwelling worms. After the images were annotated, we used 90% to train and 10% to validate an AI model. As the AI model was able to reliably recognise worm eggs, we provided a proof-of-concept for automated scanning and detection of worm eggs in stool smears. We identified important obstacles for both the slide scanning device and the application of AI, but we are hopeful that this research can support the 2030 NTDs roadmap and eventually other NTDs for which microscopic examination is the diagnostic standard." "Continuous activation of the IL-17F driven inflammatory pathway in acute and chronic digital dermatitis lesions in dairy cattle" "Peter Geldhof, Richard Ducatelle, Yannick Gansemans, Filip Van Nieuwerburgh, Dieter Deforce, Geert Opsomer" "Spatial proteogenomics reveals distinct and evolutionarily conserved hepatic macrophage niches" "Martin Guilliams, Johnny Bonnardel, Birthe Haest, Bart Vanderborght, Camille Wagner, Anneleen Remmerie, Anna Bujko, Liesbet Martens, Tinne Thoné, Federico Francesco De Ponti, Bavo Vanneste, Christian Zwicker, Freya Svedberg, Amanda Gonçalves, Saskia Lippens, Bert Devriendt, Eric Cox, Giuliano Ferrero, Valerie Wittamer, Suzanne J.F. Kaptein, Johan Neyts, Kai Dallmeier, Peter Geldhof, Stijn Casaert, Bart Deplancke, Peter ten Dijke, Anne Hoorens, Yvan Saeys, Wouter Saelens, Charlotte Scott"