Awards

Ross Colgate of the University of Vermont in the U.S. will test whether mother-to-child transmission of the potentially deadly diarrhea-causing pathogen Campylobacter is a major cause of infection in infants in low- to middle-income countries. Campylobacter infections are assumed to occur via contaminated food or water, or infected animals. However, infants are often also infected even though their exposure to these sources is limited given they are immobile and only ingest milk. They will enroll 85 infants and mothers from an urban clinic in Zimbabwe, and collect monthly stool and breast milk samples over an 11-month period and during any diarrheal episodes. All samples will be tested for Campylobacter by culture and PCR. Samples from infants suffering from repeat infections will be subjected to advanced genomic sequencing to determine whether they are caused by one strain that persists within the host, which could require alternative prevention strategies.

Song Liang of Public Land Grant University in the U.S. will study how children in low- and middle-income settings become infected with the zoonotic pathogen Campylobacter, which causes potentially lethal diarrhea, in order to develop more effective interventions. Using a cohort of children aged 0 to 3 months from a rural setting in Ethiopia, they will apply behavioral study methodology to quantify their behavior at potential infection interfaces where they may ingest Campylobacter, such as while on the floor, close to any chickens, which are known sources of infection, and from their mother/caregiver. These interfaces, along with fecal samples from the children and caregivers, will then be tested for Campylobacter using 16S rRNA sequencing and high-throughput qPCR methods. They will use these data to develop models that explain how children become infected, and use them to identify the most effective and sustainable intervention strategies.

Amira Roess of George Washington University in the U.S. will perform a longitudinal study of Campylobacter transmission in rural Bangladesh to determine all the routes of transmission to young children, both within households and from the environment. Campylobacter is a major cause of diarrheal disease in children under five years of age, but transmission routes in low- to middle-income settings are largely unknown, making it hard to control. They will recruit 400 households with pregnant women across a selection of villages with different scales of poultry production, as chickens are a major source of transmission. They will sequence monthly fecal samples from the family and any livestock, as well as soil and water samples, to detect the presence and subtypes of Campylobacter. They will also collect data on human-animal interactions, illnesses, and food preparation methods. These will be used to build mathematical models of the routes of transmission and to evaluate the impact of vaccine-based interventions.