Publications

campylobacter genotypes from food animals, environmental sources and clinical disease in scotland 2005/6.	a nationwide multi-locus sequence typing (mlst) survey was implemented to analyze patterns of host association among campylobacter jejuni and campylobacter coli isolates from clinical disease in scotland (july 2005-september 2006), food animals (chickens, cattle, sheep, pigs and turkey), non-food animals (wild birds) and the environment. sequence types (sts) were determined for 5247 clinical isolates and 999 from potential disease sources (augmented with 2420 published sts). certain sts were ove ...	2009	19269051
spatiotemporal homogeneity of campylobacter subtypes from cattle and sheep across northeastern and southwestern scotland.	source attribution using molecular subtypes has implicated cattle and sheep as sources of human campylobacter infection. whether the campylobacter subtypes associated with cattle and sheep vary spatiotemporally remains poorly known, especially at national levels. here we describe spatiotemporal patterns of prevalence, bacterial enumeration, and subtype composition in campylobacter isolates from cattle and sheep feces from northeastern (63 farms, 414 samples) and southwestern (71 farms, 449 sampl ...	2009	19700557
prevalence of campylobacter spp. in raw retail poultry on sale in northern ireland.	a year-long survey of fresh, retail poultry products on sale in northern ireland was undertaken to define the prevalence of campylobacter spp. by using protocols based on iso (standard) 10272-1:2006. incubation at 37 and 42 degrees c was undertaken to increase the diversity of isolates obtained. overall, 652 isolates were identified as campylobacter spp. by using pcr and amplified fragment length polymorphic typing. phenotyping wrongly identified 21% of isolates. prevalences of campylobacter fou ...	2009	19777882
campylobacter excreted into the environment by animal sources: prevalence, concentration shed, and host association.	an intensive study of 443 isolates of campylobacter jejuni and campylobacter coli from 2031 fecal samples excreted by animal sources including cattle, sheep, and pigs, a range of wild and domesticated avian species and pets is described. the prevalence found in the majority of animal sources ranged from 22% to 28% with poultry being highest at 41% and cats and dogs lowest (<5%). the average count excreted for each animal source was found not to be significantly different ranging from approximate ...	2009	19839759
multi-locus sequence types of campylobacter carried by flies and slugs acquired from local ruminant faeces.	to assess whether flies and slugs acquire strains of campylobacter jejuni and campylobacter coli present in local ruminant faeces.	2010	20337762
evolution of an agriculture-associated disease causing campylobacter coli clade: evidence from national surveillance data in scotland.	the common zoonotic pathogen campylobacter coli is an important cause of bacterial gastroenteritis worldwide but its evolution is incompletely understood. using multilocus sequence type (mlst) data of 7 housekeeping genes from a national survey of campylobacter in scotland (2005/6), and a combined population genetic-phylogenetics approach, we investigated the evolutionary history of c. coli. genealogical reconstruction of isolates from clinical infection, farm animals and the environment, reveal ...	2010	21179537
elucidating the aetiology of human campylobacter coli infections.	there has been little research on the determinants of campylobacter coli infection, despite its contributing up to 10% of human campylobacter infections. a case-control and two case-case study methods explored the aetiology of c. coli over a one year period across scotland. the case-control multivariate model found an increased risk of c. coli infection in people older than 19 years (o.r. = 3.352), and during the summer months (o.r. = 2.596), while residing in an urban area decreased the risk (o ...	2013	23734204