What is it about?
Anthrax is a disease caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis. After infecting and killing an animal, e.g a Zebra, the bacterium enters the soil at the carcass site. It is known that anthrax carcass site remain infectious for long times. In addition, herbivores like zebras prefer to feed at anthrax carcass sites due to healthier grass. Here we studied using shotgun sequencing, Q-PCR and cultivation, the changes in the community composition of soil microbes over 30 days after the deposition of an anthrax carcass in the Etosha National Park (ENP), Namibia. Our aim was to describe the changes taking place and to identify organisms playing a role in making the carcass sites mor attractive. We found large fluctuations in the community and the rise of microbes known to be beneficial for plant growth.
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Why is it important?
The work is unique, since we studied two carcass sites, where scavengers had access to the carcasses. This contrasts most decomposition studies, where large scavengers are excluded and those therefore do not represent natural processes. In addition, our work points to a more important role for plant beneficial bacteria in the transmission of the bacterium Bacillus anthracis.
Perspectives
My hope is that this article stimulates thinking about the soil compartment in the research to understand the transmission of Bacillus anthracis in natural settings. For most diseases, there is little known about the actual ecological processes taking place to spread a disease.
Dr Thomas HA Haverkamp
university of Oslo
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Temporal dynamics in microbial soil communities at anthrax carcass sites, BMC Microbiology, September 2017, Springer Science + Business Media,
DOI: 10.1186/s12866-017-1111-6.
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