Proof of concept of a method that assesses the spread of microbial infections with spatially explicit and non-spatially explicit data.

ABSTRACT:

Background

A method that assesses bacterial spatial dissemination was explored. It measures microbial genotypes (defined by electrophoretic patterns or EP), host, location (farm), interfarm Euclidean distance, and time. Its proof of concept (construct and internal validity) was evaluated using a dataset that included 113 Staphylococcus aureus EPs from 1126 bovine milk isolates collected on 23 farms between 1988 and 2005.

Results

Construct validity was assessed by comparing results based on the interfarm Euclidean distance (a spatially explicit measure) and those produced by the (non-spatial) interfarm number of isolates reporting the same EP. The distance associated with EP spread correlated with the interfarm number of isolates/EP (r = .59, P < 0.02). Internal validity was

SUBMITTER: Rivas AL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2613142 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature