Imperial College London
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Professor Matthew Fisher

Faculty of Medicine, School of Public Health

Professor of Fungal Disease Epidemiology
 
 
 
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Contact

 

matthew.fisher Website

 
 
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Location

 

1113Sir Michael Uren HubWhite City Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@unpublished{Shelton:2021:10.1101/2021.07.08.451577,
author = {Shelton, J and Collins, R and Uzzell, C and Alghamdi, A and Dyer, P and Singer, A and Fisher, M},
doi = {10.1101/2021.07.08.451577},
publisher = {Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory},
title = {Citizen-science surveillance of triazole-resistant Aspergillus fumigatus in UK residential garden soils},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/2021.07.08.451577},
year = {2021}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - UNPB
AB  - Compost is an ecological niche for Aspergillus fumigatus due to its role as a decomposer of organic matter and its ability to survive the high temperatures associated with the composting process. Subsequently, composting facilities are associated with high levels of A. fumigatus spores that are aerosolised from compost and cause respiratory illness in workers. In the UK, gardening is an activity enjoyed by individuals of all ages and it is likely that they are being exposed to A. fumigatus spores when handling commercial compost or compost they have produced themselves. In this study, 246 citizen scientists collected 509 soil samples from locations in their garden in the UK, from which were cultured 5,174 A. fumigatus isolates. Of these isolates, 736 (14%) were resistant to tebuconazole: the third most-sprayed triazole fungicide in the UK, which confers cross-resistance to the medical triazoles used to treat A. fumigatus lung infections in humans. These isolates were found to contain the common resistance mechanisms in the A. fumigatus cyp51A gene TR 34 /L98H or TR 46 /Y121F/T289A, and less common resistance mechanisms TR 34 , TR 53 , TR 46 /Y121F/T289A/S363P/I364V/G448S and (TR 46 ) 2 /Y121F/M172I/T289A/G448S. Regression analyses found that soil samples containing compost were significantly more likely to grow susceptible and tebuconazole-resistant A. fumigatus than those that did not, and that compost samples grew significantly higher numbers of A. fumigatus than other samples. <h4>Importance</h4> These findings highlight compost as a potential health hazard to individuals with pre-disposing factors to A. fumigatus lung infections, and a potential health hazard to immunocompetent individuals who could be exposed to sufficiently high numbers of spores to develop infection. This raises the question of whether compost bags should carry additional health warnings regarding inhalation of A. fumigatus spores, whether individuals should be advised to wear fac
AU  - Shelton,J
AU  - Collins,R
AU  - Uzzell,C
AU  - Alghamdi,A
AU  - Dyer,P
AU  - Singer,A
AU  - Fisher,M
DO  - 10.1101/2021.07.08.451577
PB  - Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
PY  - 2021///
TI  - Citizen-science surveillance of triazole-resistant Aspergillus fumigatus in UK residential garden soils
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/2021.07.08.451577
UR  - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.08.451577v1
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/93743
ER  -
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