What is One Health?
One Health is the collaborative effort of multiple health science professions, together with their related disciplines and institutions – working locally, nationally, and globally – to attain optimal health for people, domestic animals, wildlife, plants, and our environment.
When is One Health Day?
November 3rd of each year
#OneHealth
When is One Health Month?
January of each year
#OneHealthAwareness Month
Why does One Health matter?
According to the One Health Commission:
Can other species be infected by GBS, also known as Streptococcus agalactiae?
"Invasive disease due to S. agalactiae is not limited to humans. Other species affected include terrestrial mammals such as cattle, dogs and cats and aquatic or semi-aquatic species such as sea mammals, crocodiles, bullfrogs and fish." Human Streptococcus agalactiae strains in aquatic mammals and fish
One Health is the collaborative effort of multiple health science professions, together with their related disciplines and institutions – working locally, nationally, and globally – to attain optimal health for people, domestic animals, wildlife, plants, and our environment.
When is One Health Day?
November 3rd of each year
#OneHealth
When is One Health Month?
January of each year
#OneHealthAwareness Month
Why does One Health matter?
According to the One Health Commission:
- Worldwide, nearly 75 percent of all emerging human infectious diseases in the past three decades originated in animals.
- Environmental health may affect human and animal health through contamination, pollution and poor conditions that may lead to new infectious agents.
- The world population is projected to grow from 7 billion in 2011 to 9 billion by 2050.
- To provide adequate healthcare, food and water for the growing global population, the health professions, and their related disciplines and institutions, must work together.
- The human-animal bond beneficially impacts the health of both people and animals.
Can other species be infected by GBS, also known as Streptococcus agalactiae?
"Invasive disease due to S. agalactiae is not limited to humans. Other species affected include terrestrial mammals such as cattle, dogs and cats and aquatic or semi-aquatic species such as sea mammals, crocodiles, bullfrogs and fish." Human Streptococcus agalactiae strains in aquatic mammals and fish
Group B Streptococcus in babies, adults and animals: is there a link?
View the insightful video on this topic as presented by Ruth Zadoks, MSc, MRes, DVM, PhD for the International Conference on Group B Strep 2020.
The landscape of antimicrobial resistance in the neonatal and multi-host pathogen group B Streptococcus: review from a One Health perspective
Oliveira, L. M. A., Simões, L. C., Costa, N. S., Zadoks, R. N., & Pinto, T. C. A. (2022). Frontiers in microbiology, 13, 943413. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2022.943413
Studies regarding GBS transmission between humans and bovines
"Group B streptococcus (GBS), the most significant cause of neonatal bacterial sepsis, is thought to have emerged in the 1960s. GBS also causes mastitis in cows, and there is indirect evidence that human GBS is derived from a bovine ancestor...There is a temporal relationship between the emergence of neonatal GBS disease reports in the UK in the 1960s and a change in cow's milk collection. This finding may be a temporal coincidence or may add support to the notion that human GBS was historically derived from a bovine ancestor." Cow's milk and the emergence of group B streptococcal disease in newborn babies.
"A key finding of this investigation is that the serotype III GBS strains isolated from bovine milk in this sample are largely genetically distinct from the serotype III GBS strains that commonly infect humans." Serotype III Streptococcus agalactiae from Bovine Milk and Human Neonatal Infections
"Although GBS uncommonly colonizes livestock stools, increased frequency of cattle exposure was significantly associated with human colonization and one couple shared the same GBS strains as their bovine suggesting intraspecies transmission. These results set the framework for GBS as a possible zoonotic infection, which has significant public health implications." Association of Group B Streptococcus Colonization and Bovine Exposure: A Prospective Cross-Sectional Cohort Study
"These findings support the possibility of on-farm interspecies transmission. This phenomenon has not been studied in countries with high GBS prevalence in the cattle population." Potential group B Streptococcus interspecies transmission between cattle and people in Colombian dairy farms
"Our findings support introduction of GBS into the dairy population due to human to-cattle jumps on multiple occasions and demonstrate that reverse zoonotic transmission can erase successes of animal disease control campaigns." The fall and rise of group B Streptococcus in dairy cattle: reintroduction due to human-to-cattle host jumps?
Antimicrobial resistance in Group B Streptococcus circulating in Brazil under a One Health Perspective Presentation by Laura Oliveira, MSc, PhD for the International Conference on Group B Strep 2022
"The common bovine GBS clades detected in this study have rarely been reported in humans, suggesting limited risk of interspecies transmission of GBS in Brazil. This study provides new data to support improvements to CBM and AMR control, bovine GBS vaccine design, and the management of public health risks posed by bovine GBS in Brazil." Long-Term Co-Circulation of Host-Specialist and Host-Generalist Lineages of Group B Streptococcus in Brazilian Dairy Cattle with Heterogenous Antimicrobial Resistance Profiles
"GBS is a multihost pathogen, able to adapt to different niches."
Group B Streptococcus Sequence Type 103 as Human and Bovine Pathogen, Brazil
"A key finding of this investigation is that the serotype III GBS strains isolated from bovine milk in this sample are largely genetically distinct from the serotype III GBS strains that commonly infect humans." Serotype III Streptococcus agalactiae from Bovine Milk and Human Neonatal Infections
"Although GBS uncommonly colonizes livestock stools, increased frequency of cattle exposure was significantly associated with human colonization and one couple shared the same GBS strains as their bovine suggesting intraspecies transmission. These results set the framework for GBS as a possible zoonotic infection, which has significant public health implications." Association of Group B Streptococcus Colonization and Bovine Exposure: A Prospective Cross-Sectional Cohort Study
"These findings support the possibility of on-farm interspecies transmission. This phenomenon has not been studied in countries with high GBS prevalence in the cattle population." Potential group B Streptococcus interspecies transmission between cattle and people in Colombian dairy farms
"Our findings support introduction of GBS into the dairy population due to human to-cattle jumps on multiple occasions and demonstrate that reverse zoonotic transmission can erase successes of animal disease control campaigns." The fall and rise of group B Streptococcus in dairy cattle: reintroduction due to human-to-cattle host jumps?
Antimicrobial resistance in Group B Streptococcus circulating in Brazil under a One Health Perspective Presentation by Laura Oliveira, MSc, PhD for the International Conference on Group B Strep 2022
"The common bovine GBS clades detected in this study have rarely been reported in humans, suggesting limited risk of interspecies transmission of GBS in Brazil. This study provides new data to support improvements to CBM and AMR control, bovine GBS vaccine design, and the management of public health risks posed by bovine GBS in Brazil." Long-Term Co-Circulation of Host-Specialist and Host-Generalist Lineages of Group B Streptococcus in Brazilian Dairy Cattle with Heterogenous Antimicrobial Resistance Profiles
"GBS is a multihost pathogen, able to adapt to different niches."
Group B Streptococcus Sequence Type 103 as Human and Bovine Pathogen, Brazil
Studies regarding GBS transmission between humans and camels
"Our finding of one likely human-derived isolate (ST1) in an infected udder strongly suggests that human to camel transmission is possible, and this potential risk should be further explored." Genomic analysis of group B Streptococcus from milk demonstrates the need for improved biosecurity: a cross-sectional study of pastoralist camels in Kenya
GBS in Dairy Camels – Prevalence, molecular epidemiology and antibiotic resistance
Presentation by Dinah Seligsohn, DVM, PhD for the International Conference on Group B Strep 2022
"As camel husbandry and milk production intensify in light of climate change, the animal's drought resilience, and the growing demand for camel milk, the emergence and expansion of new GBS strains in or derived from camels appears to be a distinct possibility. Ongoing surveillance of the prevalence and population composition of GBS in camels is recommended so that the emergence of resistant, virulent, or zoonotic strains can be detected early." How GBS Got Its Hump: Genomic Analysis of Group B Streptococcus from Camels Identifies Host Restriction as well as Mobile Genetic Elements Shared across Hosts and Pathogens
GBS in Dairy Camels – Prevalence, molecular epidemiology and antibiotic resistance
Presentation by Dinah Seligsohn, DVM, PhD for the International Conference on Group B Strep 2022
"As camel husbandry and milk production intensify in light of climate change, the animal's drought resilience, and the growing demand for camel milk, the emergence and expansion of new GBS strains in or derived from camels appears to be a distinct possibility. Ongoing surveillance of the prevalence and population composition of GBS in camels is recommended so that the emergence of resistant, virulent, or zoonotic strains can be detected early." How GBS Got Its Hump: Genomic Analysis of Group B Streptococcus from Camels Identifies Host Restriction as well as Mobile Genetic Elements Shared across Hosts and Pathogens
Studies on GBS transmission regarding other species
"We describe group B Streptococcus linked to disease in farmed pigs and wild porcupines in Italy. Occurrence in pigs was attributed to transmission from nonpasteurized bovine milk whey. Antimicrobial-resistance profiles in isolates from porcupines suggest no common source of infection. Our findings expand the known host range for group B Streptococcus disease." Emergence of Group B Streptococcus Disease in Pigs and Porcupines, Italy
"This work provides a primary source related to the molecular epidemiology of S. agalactiae in dairy goat herds in China and will aid in the clinical treatment, prevention, and control of mastitis." Molecular epidemiology, drug resistance, and virulence gene analysis of Streptococcus agalactiae isolates from dairy goats in backyard farms in China
Group B Streptococcus population structure and niche-adaption: why should we care about other host species – Presentation by Chiara Crestani, DVM, PhD for the International Conference on Group B Strep 2022
"Our findings show that the process of host/niche adaption is an ongoing and dynamic process through time where populations can take divergent evolutionary trajectories to become adapted and specialized to particular hosts or niches. However, populations can reconnect when strains or genes from one population spillover or leak into another." Population gene introgression and high genome plasticity for the zoonotic pathogen Streptococcus agalactiae.
"Increased antimicrobial resistance in animal GBS strains calls for deep concern about farmed fish and animal products and how these could potentially interrelate to affect human health and infection control." Multidrug-Resistant Streptococcus agalactiae Strains Found in Human and Fish with High Penicillin and Cefotaxime Non-Susceptibilities
"Streptococcus agalactiae, commonly known as group B streptococcus (GBS), is a cause of infectious disease in numerous animal species...Comparative genomics of piscine, human and bovine GBS could help clarify those genes important for host tropism, the emergence of unique pathogenic clones and whether these hosts act as reservoirs of one another's pathogenic lineages." Phylogenetic relationships among Streptococcus agalactiae isolated from piscine, dolphin, bovine and human sources: a dolphin and piscine lineage associated with a fish epidemic in Kuwait is also associated with human neonatal infections in Japan.
"This work provides a primary source related to the molecular epidemiology of S. agalactiae in dairy goat herds in China and will aid in the clinical treatment, prevention, and control of mastitis." Molecular epidemiology, drug resistance, and virulence gene analysis of Streptococcus agalactiae isolates from dairy goats in backyard farms in China
Group B Streptococcus population structure and niche-adaption: why should we care about other host species – Presentation by Chiara Crestani, DVM, PhD for the International Conference on Group B Strep 2022
"Our findings show that the process of host/niche adaption is an ongoing and dynamic process through time where populations can take divergent evolutionary trajectories to become adapted and specialized to particular hosts or niches. However, populations can reconnect when strains or genes from one population spillover or leak into another." Population gene introgression and high genome plasticity for the zoonotic pathogen Streptococcus agalactiae.
"Increased antimicrobial resistance in animal GBS strains calls for deep concern about farmed fish and animal products and how these could potentially interrelate to affect human health and infection control." Multidrug-Resistant Streptococcus agalactiae Strains Found in Human and Fish with High Penicillin and Cefotaxime Non-Susceptibilities
"Streptococcus agalactiae, commonly known as group B streptococcus (GBS), is a cause of infectious disease in numerous animal species...Comparative genomics of piscine, human and bovine GBS could help clarify those genes important for host tropism, the emergence of unique pathogenic clones and whether these hosts act as reservoirs of one another's pathogenic lineages." Phylogenetic relationships among Streptococcus agalactiae isolated from piscine, dolphin, bovine and human sources: a dolphin and piscine lineage associated with a fish epidemic in Kuwait is also associated with human neonatal infections in Japan.
Foodborne outbreak of Group B Strep in SE Asia
Dr. Timothy Barkham and Dr. Swaine Chen have led the investigation on the foodborne outbreak in SE Asia that has been linked to a particular strain of group B strep causing invasive sepsis in otherwise healthy adults. Please view their superb investigative work in the video presentations below.
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Dr. Timothy Barkham
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Dr. Swaine Chen
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For additional info:
RISK PROFILE Group B Streptococcus (GBS) Streptococcus agalactiae sequence type (ST) 283 in freshwater fish
RISK PROFILE Group B Streptococcus (GBS) Streptococcus agalactiae sequence type (ST) 283 in freshwater fish
Articles and Abstracts:
An oral pH-responsive Streptococcus agalactiae vaccine formulation provides protective immunity to pathogen challenge in tilapia: A proof-of-concept study
Bashir, S., Phuoc, N. N., Herath, T., Basit, A., Zadoks, R. N., & Murdan, S. (2023). PloS one, 18(3), e0278277. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0278277
Geographical, Temporal and Host-Species Distribution of Potentially Human-Pathogenic Group B Streptococcus in Aquaculture Species in Southeast Asia
Sirimanapong W, Phước NN, Crestani C, Chen S, Zadoks RN. Pathogens. 2023; 12(4):525. https://doi.org/10.3390/pathogens12040525
An oral pH-responsive Streptococcus agalactiae vaccine formulation provides protective immunity to pathogen challenge in tilapia: A proof-of-concept study
Bashir, S., Phuoc, N. N., Herath, T., Basit, A., Zadoks, R. N., & Murdan, S. (2023). PloS one, 18(3), e0278277. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0278277
Geographical, Temporal and Host-Species Distribution of Potentially Human-Pathogenic Group B Streptococcus in Aquaculture Species in Southeast Asia
Sirimanapong W, Phước NN, Crestani C, Chen S, Zadoks RN. Pathogens. 2023; 12(4):525. https://doi.org/10.3390/pathogens12040525
To find out more about One Health, please visit:
One Health Commission or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
If you would like to suggest a study or resource for this page, please email us at [email protected]!
One Health Commission or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
If you would like to suggest a study or resource for this page, please email us at [email protected]!