Early exposure to animals reduces risk of developing childhood asthma

More good news for animal lovers! A recent study on the effects of exposure to dogs and farm animals on childhood asthma was just published in JAMA Pediatrics. The article is entitled Early Exposure to Dogs and Farm Animals and the Risk of Childhood Asthma by T. Fall, C. Lundholm, A.K. Örtqvist, K. Fall, F. Fang, Ã…. Hedhammar, O. Kämpe, E. Ingelsson, C. Almqvist.  Here is the …

Recent Built Environment Microbiology papers, June 8, 2015

It’s World Oceans Day, so I have included a couple of papers today about the anthropogenic influence on marine microbes. Other recent papers cover microbes in school dust, metabolites in houses with moisture damage, dental units, rust, and arsenic removal filters. Suggested song to play while reading this post: Jack Johnson — Only The Ocean Book …

Housing characteristics and microbial communities in homes of asthmatic children

Appropriate song to play while reading this post: Harder To Breathe – Maroon 5 Asthma severity can be affected by several indoor and outdoor conditions, including dust and microbes. In a paper that came out last week in Indoor Air, researchers from Yale University applied NextGen DNA sequencing to characterize the bacterial and fungal communities in house-dust sampled from …

Report on the Animals in the Built Environment Workshop

On October 7th and 8th 2014, we held a workshop at the University of California, Davis entitled Animals in the Built Environment. The aim of this workshop was to catalyze the study of the microbiology of built environments where animals live by bringing together experts in animal health, building science and microbiology to discuss why these systems are …

“Modifiable factors governing indoor fungal diversity and risk of asthma”

Just came across this review from Sharpe et al. at the University of Exeter, UK; “Modifiable factors governing indoor fungal diversity and risk of asthma”.   I’ve just skimmed it so far, but it seems to be a good starting place for getting a handle on this topic. I like the emphasis on “modifiable factors”, implying …

AAAS Microbiomes of the Built Environment Symposium videos available on-line

Registrants for the March AAAS Symposium are recipients today of the following message from Anette Olsen at AAAS. “I’d like to let you know that the videos of each panel is now online, but they currently remain unedited. We anticipate another two weeks before the edited versions are placed online. In the meantime, here is …

Found: “most toxic” metabolite from a very common indoor fungus

A just-published article by Desroches et al, “Extrolites of Wallemia sebi, a very common fungus in the built environment,”in the journal Indoor Air describes a previously unidentified metabolite of Wallemia sebi , a very common fungus in houses worldwide, although relatively more common in north temperate climates. The authors (including David Miller) write that it …

Dog hair and asthma

One aspect of life with dogs is that my house and clothing tend be coated in a layer of hair. However, a recent study by Fujimura et al. indicates that the dust in houses with dogs may confer protection from airway allergens and respiratory infection compared to houses with no pets. Fujimura et al. exposed …

New #PLOSPathogens paper: Asthma & the Diversity of Fungal Spores in Air

Of possible interest to studies of microbiology of the built environment is a new paper: PLOS Pathogens: Asthma and the Diversity of Fungal Spores in Air.  By Anne Pringle from Harvard University, the goal is summed up pretty well by the author With this primer, my aim is to facilitate communication by providing doctors with a …