Robert J Atterbury

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Verified

Robert verified their affiliation via an institutional email.

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• BSc, MRes, PhD
• Professor (Associate) at University of Nottingham

Phages are typically classified as temperate, integrating into host genomes, or lytic, replicating and killing bacteria. Lytic phages are not expected in bacterial genome sequences, yet our analysis of 3.6 million bacterial assemblies from 1,226 species revealed >100,000 complete lytic phage genomes, which we term Bacterial Assembly-associated Phag...

Introduction Canine otitis externa (OE) is a frequently-diagnosed condition in veterinary practices worldwide. Pseudomonas aeruginosa is commonly associated with chronic and recalcitrant canine OE, but studies with detailed genomic and phenotypic characterisation of clinical isolates are lacking. Methods Pseudomonas aeruginosa canine OE isolates (...

Introduction Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a leading cause of canine otitis externa. Enrofloxacin is often applied topically to treat this condition, although recalcitrant and recurring infections are common. There is evidence that exposure to blue light (400–470 nm) has a bactericidal effect on P. aeruginosa and other microorganisms. Methods In the p...

Canine otitis externa (OE) is a commonly diagnosed condition seen in veterinary practice worldwide. In this review, we discuss the mechanisms of the disease, with a particular focus on the biological characteristics of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and the impact that antibiotic resistance has on successful recovery from OE. We also consider potential alt...

Salmonella causes a range of diseases in humans and livestock of considerable public health and economic importance. Widespread antimicrobial use, particularly in intensively produced livestock (e.g., poultry and pigs) may contribute to the rise of multidrug-resistant Salmonella strains. Alternative treatments such as bacteriophages have shown prom...

The increase in antibiotic-resistant avian-pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC), the causative agent of colibacillosis in poultry, warrants urgent research and the development of alternative therapies. This study describes the isolation and characterization of 19 genetically diverse, lytic coliphages, 8 of which were tested in combination for their e...

Salmonella remains one of the most important foodborne bacterial pathogens worldwide, and is frequently linked with the consumption of contaminated poultry meat and eggs. Despite some noted successes in reducing particular serotypes and strains, other serotypes have become more problematic. Progress has also been frustrated by increasing resistance...

ABSTRACT Nontyphoidal Salmonella spp. are a leading cause of human food poisoning and can be transmitted to humans via consuming contaminated pork. To reduce Salmonella spread to the human food chain, bacteriophage (phage) therapy could be used to reduce bacteria from animals’ preslaughter. We aimed to determine if adding a two-phage cocktail to fe...

Poultry are a major source of valuable high-quality protein for much of the world's population, so food security is heavily dependent on maintaining poultry health. They are also increasingly important as specialist hobby animals in back-yard flocks. Despite this, veterinarians specializing in the care and health of these important domestic animals...

This chapter discusses application of natural parasites of bacteria, bacteriophages (phages), as a promising biological control for Salmonella in poultry and swine. Many studies have shown phages can be applied at different points from farm-to-fork, from pre to post slaughter, to control the spread of Salmonella in the food chain. Pre-slaughter app...

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global health and economic crisis. With too few antibiotics in development to meet current and anticipated needs, there is a critical need for new therapies to treat Gram-negative infections. One potential approach is the use of living predatory bacteria, such as Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus (small Gram-negative ba...

Staphylococcus pseudintermedius is an important member of the skin microbial community in animals and can cause opportunistic infections in both pets and their owners. The high incidence of antimicrobial resistance in S. pseudintermedius highlights that this opportunistic zoonotic pathogen can cause infections which require prolonged and intensive...

Infections caused by protozoan parasites burden the world with huge costs in terms of human and animal health. Most parasitic diseases caused by protozoans are neglected, particularly those associated with poverty and tropical countries, but the paucity of drug treatments and vaccines combined with increasing problems of drug resistance are becomin...

Abstract Background Enteric infections caused by Salmonella spp. remain a major public health burden worldwide. Chickens are known to be a major reservoir for this zoonotic pathogen. The presence of Salmonella in poultry farms and abattoirs is associated with financial costs of treatment and a serious risk to human health. The use of bacteriophages...

With increasing levels of antibiotic resistance, the development of alternative antibacterial therapies is urgently needed. Two potential alternatives are bacteriophage and predatory bacteria. Bacteriophage therapy has been used, but prey/host specificity and the rapid acquisition of bacterial resistance to bacteriophage are practical consideration...

Aim: Following previous research on improving the cleaning of crates used to transport broiler chickens from the farm to the abattoir, a demonstration project was undertaken to investigate improvements in crate washing on a commercial scale. Methods and results: The soak tank of a conventional crate washing system was replaced with a high-perfor...

Zoonoses are infectious diseases transmitted directly or indirectly between animals and humans. Several important zoonotic pathogens colonize farm animals asymptomatically, which may lead to contamination of the food chain and public health hazards. Moreover, routine sampling of carcasses at retail by government authorities over the past 20 years s...

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is now a major global problem largely resulting from the overuse of antibiotics in humans and livestock. In some AMR bacteria, resistance is encoded by conjugative plasmids expressing sex-pili that can readily spread resistance through bacterial populations. The aim of this study was to use sex pilus-specific (SPS) ph...

Cholera remains a major risk in developing countries, particularly after natural or man-made disasters. Vibrio cholerae El Tor is the most important cause of these outbreaks, and is becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics, so alternative therapies are urgently needed. In this study, a single bacteriophage, Phi_1, was used to control cholera...

Objectives We have isolated a total of five newer cholera phages which are novel broad host range to incorporate with the existing phage typing schemes for an extended typing scheme. Materials and Methods These newly isolated phages were well characterized including the electron micrograph. A total of 300 Vibrio cholerae strains were isolated from...

The complete genome sequences of seven closely related Vibrio cholerae phages isolated from environmental sites in southeastern China are reported here. Phages QH, CJY, H1, H2, H3, J2, and J3 are members of the Podoviridae family and are highly similar to the previously sequenced Vibrio phages VP2, VP5, and phiVC8.

The complete genomes of two Vibrio cholerae bacteriophages of potential interest for cholera bacteriophage (phage) therapy were sequenced and annotated. The genome size of phage 24 is 44,395 bp encoding 71 putative proteins, and that of phage X29 is 41,569 bp encoding 68 putative proteins.

We have performed microbiological and genomic characterization of an historic collection of nine bacteriophages, specifically infecting a K1 E. coli O18:K1:H7 ColV⁺ strain. These phages were isolated from sewage and tested for their efficacy in vivo for the treatment of systemic E. coli infection in a mouse infection model by Smith and Huggins (198...

The use of the generic term "meat and animal derivatives" in declared ingredient lists of pet foods in the European Union is virtually universal. In the wake of the 2013 "horse meat scandal" in the human food chain, we examined the presence and authenticity of animal sources (cow, chicken, pig and horse) of proteins in a range of popular wet pet fo...

Human infections with non-typhoidal Salmonella (NTS) serovars are increasingly becoming a threat to human health globally. While all motile Salmonellae have zoonotic potential, Salmonella Enteritidis and Salmonella Typhimurium are most commonly associated with human disease, for which poultry are a major source. Despite the increasing number of hum...

The second edition of this book contains chapters on the taxonomy, structure, virulence factors and genetics of Salmonella spp. and the epidemiology, prevalence, pathogenesis, diagnosis, prevention, control and regulatory aspects of salmonellosis in poultry, cattle, sheep, pigs, horses, cats, dogs, other pets, feeds and the environment.

Bacteriophages are viruses of bacteria that are used for controlling bacterial food-borne pathogens and have been proposed for more extensive usage in infection control. Protists are now recognised to harbour viruses and virus-like particles. We propose that investigation of their prevalence in parasites be intensified. We also propose that such vi...

Background Evolution equipped Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus predatory bacteria to invade other bacteria, digesting and replicating, sealed within them thus preventing nutrient-sharing with organisms in the surrounding environment. Bdellovibrio were previously described as “obligate predators” because only by mutations, often in gene bd0108, are 1 in ~...

Phylogentic tree of theBdellovibrionalesincludingB. bacteriovorusTiberius. Neighbour-joining tree of the 16S rRNA sequences of the Bdellovibrionales. B. bacteriovorus Tiberius is shown by its isolate number ‘b5b’. Tree produced using the in-built neighbour-joining algorithms in the Arb program, and bootstrapped using n=500. Myxococcus xanthus Mx162...

Evolutionary rates analysis for all 3203 orthologous genes in B. bacteriovorus HD100 and Tiberius predicted by RSD. Substitution rates were estimated by pairwise comparison in PAML. Red highlighting denotes pairs with dS > 1.5, which indicates saturation of synonymous sites. Table title headings are as follows: ortholog pair (from RSD) = this is a...

Table showing the location and composition of unique gene islands located next to tRNAs.

Stills from timelapse microscopy video showing simultaneous growth and division of B. bacteriovorus Tiberius: A filamentous B. bacteriovorus Tiberius grows, divides and fragments in a large E.coli prey bdelloplast (lower arrow) while a smaller B. bacteriovorus Tiberius (upper arrow) elongates prey-independently. Shown by time lapse microscopy from...

Graph showing B. bacteriovorus Tiberius host-independent growth of cells from a predatorily grown culture: Spontaneously streptomycin-resistant Tiberius cells were taken directly from a culture grown on prey cells. They were then directly grown in PY broth (Horowitz et al., 1974) in the presence of streptomycin to inhibit growth of prey E. coli (st...

Graph showing evidence of killing of E. coli S17-1 and growth of B. bacteriovorus Tiberius in a predatory culture. Start- and end-point analyses of viable cell numbers of E. coli prey cells and Tiberius predatory cells by plaque (Tiberius) and colony (E. coli) counts on soft agar overlays on prey lawns, or conventional LB agar plates, respectively.

a. DNA encoding ICE like transposase element, 6 identical insertions of which were unique to the B. bacteriovorus Tiberius genome.b. predicted domains on encoded protein from Blast X search. c. Alignment of Tiberius encoded IS element product translated from bases 7–732 with insertion element IS2 transposase catalytic protein InsD of E.coli. The am...

ACT comparison of B. bacteriovorus HD100 and Tiberius genomes. HD100 is shown along the top of the comparison, with Tiberius below. Areas shown in red are regions of high synteny; blue lines represent areas of homology but in reverse orientation.

Unique Genes called by RSD and by Manual Blast. First page shows the annotation of all genes in each of the HD100 and Tiberius genomes alongside whether they were identified as being unique by either RSD or blast analyses. Second page shows only those genes identified as unique by either analysis method, listed by Bd# or Bdt#. The third page again...

Table showing the location and type of each tRNA identified by tRNAScan-SE in the genomes of B. bacteriovorus HD100 and Tiberius. Note the absence of the Pro-type tRNA from the Tiberius genome.

Multidrug-resistant Salmonella Typhimurium U288 is a significant pathogen of pigs, accounting for over half of all outbreaks on UK pig production premises. The potential of this serovar, and other salmonellae, to enter the food chain during the slaughtering process requires that efforts be made to reduce the prevalence of these bacteria at both the...

Campylobacter is the most common known source of human bacterial enteritis in the developed world and poultry is considered the main source. Broilers often become colonized with Campylobacter during rearing, and then contaminate the farm environment. The objective of this study was to identify Campylobacter-positive environmental reservoirs on farm...

Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus is a bacterium which preys upon and kills Gram-negative bacteria, including the zoonotic pathogens Escherichia coli and Salmonella. Bdellovibrio has potential as a biocontrol agent, but no reports of it being tested in living animals have been published, and no data on whether Bdellovibrio might spread between animals are...

To investigate whether the efficacy of live vaccines is influenced by the mode of vaccine delivery, a widely-used UK live commercial Salmonella Enteritidis vaccine was delivered to pullet chicks either by spray, in drinking water, or in combination with a bivalent vaccine containing inactivated Salmonella Enteritidis and Salmonella Typhimurium. The...

Since their discovery almost a century ago, bacterial viruses (bacteriophages or 'phages') have been used to prevent and treat a multitude of bacterial infections (phage therapy: PT). In addition, they have been the basis for many advances in genetics and biochemistry. Phage therapy was performed on human subjects in the United States, Europe and A...

The aim of this study was to determine the efficacy of a killed Salmonella vaccine and three live vaccines in preventing caecal colonisation of Hy-line Brown pullets by Salmonella Enteritidis PT 4. The lowest number of Salmonella-positive birds following the largest challenge (10(8) cfu) was recorded for live vaccine 1. However, birds treated with...

1. Small sections cut from commercial crates used to transport live poultry to the processing plant were artificially contaminated with effluent taken from a commercial crate-cleaning system. 2. Laboratory trials, involving the immersion of these sections in an ultrasonic water bath (4 kW energy) showed that aerobic plate counts (APC) and counts of...

Acute enteric infections caused by salmonellas remain a major public health burden worldwide. Poultry, particularly chickens, are known to be the main reservoir for this zoonotic pathogen. Although some progress has been made in reducing Salmonella colonization of broiler chickens by using biosecurity and antimicrobials, it still remains a consider...

Colonization of broiler chickens by the enteric pathogen Campylobacter jejuni is widespread and difficult to prevent. Bacteriophage therapy is one possible means by which this colonization could be controlled, thus limiting the entry of campylobacters into the human food chain. Prior to evaluating the efficacy of phage therapy, experimental models...

Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter-specific bacteriophage were enumerated from broiler chicken ceca selected from 90 United Kingdom flocks (n = 205). C. jejuni counts in the presence of bacteriophage (mean log(10) 5.1 CFU/g) were associated with a significant (P < 0.001) reduction compared to samples with Campylobacter alone (mean log(10) 6.9 C...

Food-borne disease continues to be a major cause of human morbidity and mortality. During the past few decades, Campylobacter jejuni has ascended to become the greatest cause of bacterial enteric disease worldwide. Anecdotal evidence suggests the majority of human campylobacteriosis in industrialised countries is caused by the consumption of underc...

Retail poultry products are widely purported as the major infection vehicle for human campylobacteriosis. Numerous intervention strategies have sought to reduce Campylobacter contamination on broiler carcasses in the abattoir. This study reports the efficacy of bacteriophage in reducing the number of recoverable Campylobacter jejuni cells on artifi...

The ability of phages to survive processing is an important aspect of their potential use in the biocontrol of Campylobacter in poultry production. To this end, we have developed a procedure to recover Campylobacter bacteriophages from chilled and frozen retail poultry and have validated the sensitivity of the method by using a characterized Campyl...

The effect of ambient pH on production and glycosylation of glucoamylase (GAM) and on the generation of a morphological mutant produced by Aspergillus niger strain B1 (a transformant containing an additional 20 copies of the homologous GAM glaA gene) was studied. We have shown that a change in the pH from 4 to 5.4 during continuous cultivation of t...