<i>Candida auris</i> Discovery through Community Wastewater Surveillance during Healthcare Outbreak, Nevada, USA, 2022

Rossi, Alessandro; Chavez, Jorge; Iverson, Thomas J.; Hergert, John; Oakeson, Kelly F.; LaCross, Nathan; Njoku, Chidinma; Gorzalski, Andrew; Gerrity, Daniel

doi:10.3201/eid2902.221523

“…Several publications show that Candida spp. can survive to passage through the gut in healthy adults and possibly generate further spread via wastewater [29,30]. Our observation raises the question of whether patients colonized with C. auris on the skin are also colonized in the gut and whether some human communities may harbor the previously unknown reservoirs of C. auris [31,32].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 81%

Finding Candida auris in public metagenomic repositories

Mario-Vasquez,

Bagal,

Lowe

et al. 2024

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Candida auris is a newly emerged multidrug-resistant fungus capable of causing invasive infections with high mortality. Despite intense efforts to understand how this pathogen rapidly emerged and spread worldwide, its environmental reservoirs are poorly understood. Here, we present a collaborative effort between the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Center for Biotechnology Information, and GridRepublic (a volunteer computing platform) to identify C. auris sequences in publicly available metagenomic datasets. We developed the MetaNISH pipeline that uses SRPRISM to align sequences to a set of reference genomes and computes a score for each reference genome. We used MetaNISH to scan ~300,000 SRA metagenomic runs from 2010 onwards and identified five datasets containing C. auris reads. Finally, GridRepublic has implemented a prospective C. auris molecular monitoring system using MetaNISH and volunteer computing.

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“…Several publications show that Candida spp. can survive to passage through the gut in healthy adults and possibly generate further spread via wastewater (28, 29). Our observation raises the question of whether patients colonized with C. auris on the skin are also colonized in the gut and whether some human communities may harbor the previously unknown reservoirs of C. auris (30, 31).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

FindingCandida aurisin public metagenomic repositories

Mario-Vasquez,

Bagal,

Lowe

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Candida auris is a newly emerged multidrug-resistant fungus capable of causing invasive infections with high mortality. Despite intense efforts to understand how this pathogen rapidly emerged and spread worldwide, its environmental reservoirs are poorly understood. Here, we present a collaborative effort between the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Center for Biotechnology Information, and GridRepublic (a volunteer computing platform) to identify C. auris sequences in publicly available metagenomic datasets. We developed the MetaNISH pipeline that uses SRPRISM to align sequences to a set of reference genomes and computes a score for each reference genome. We used MetaNISH to scan ~300,000 SRA metagenomic runs from 2010 onwards and identified five datasets containing C. auris reads. Finally, GridRepublic has implemented a prospective C. auris molecular monitoring system using MetaNISH and volunteer computing.

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“…And, C. auris has been detected in the ears and skin of four stray dogs in Delhi, India ( 6 ). In the United States, C. auris has been identified in wastewater surveillance after a human outbreak in Nevada ( 7 , 8 ). However, C. auris has not been identified in any pets or any mammals other than humans in the United States.…”

Section: Observationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Candida auris detected in the oral cavity of a dog in Kansas

White,

Esquivel,

Rouse Salcido

et al. 2024

mBio

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Candida auris is an emerging human fungal pathogen, first described in Japan in 2009, and first detected in the United States in 2016. Here, we report the first-ever description of C. auris colonizing a human pet, the first identification of C. auris in a non-human mammal in the United States and the first C. auris isolate from the state of Kansas. While analyzing the oral mycobiome of dogs from a shelter in Kansas, the oral swab from one dog was found to contain C. auris as well as three other fungal species. The presence of C. auris in a dog suggests the possibility of zoonotic transmission to humans. The isolate is a member of Clade IV, which has been found in patients in Chicago and Florida, while Clades I and III are the most prevalent in the United States. The isolate is resistant to fluconazole, terbinafine, and amphotericin B but susceptible to caspofungin, consistent with the drug-resistant characteristics of many human C. auris isolates. The source of C. auris transient colonization in this dog is unknown, and there is no evidence that it was further transmitted to humans, other dogs in the shelter, or pets in its adopted household. Isolation of C. auris from a dog in Kansas has public health implications as a potential emerging source for the zoonotic spread of this pathogenic fungus, and for the development of antifungal resistance. IMPORTANCE Candida auris is an emerging fungal infection of humans and is particularly problematic because it is multi-drug resistant and difficult to treat. It is also known to be spread from person to person by contact and can remain on surfaces for long periods of time. In this report, a dog in a shelter in Kansas is found to be colonized with Candida auris . This is the first study to document the presence of Candida auris on a pet, the first to document C. auris presence on a non-human mammal in the United States, and the first to report an isolate of C. auris within the state of Kansas. The presence of C. auris in a pet dog raises the possibility of zoonotic transmission from pets to human or vice versa.

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Candida auris Discovery through Community Wastewater Surveillance during Healthcare Outbreak, Nevada, USA, 2022

Cited by 23 publications

References 13 publications

Finding Candida auris in public metagenomic repositories

Finding Candida auris in public metagenomic repositories

FindingCandida aurisin public metagenomic repositories

Candida auris detected in the oral cavity of a dog in Kansas

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