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Animals
Special Issues
Streptococcus in the One-Health Prospective: Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prevention
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Streptococcus in the One-Health Prospective: Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prevention

A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Veterinary Clinical Studies".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2025 | Viewed by 842

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Alexandra Chiaverini

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell’Abruzzo e Molise “G. Caporale”, Campo Boario, 64100 Teramo, Italy
Interests: bioinformatics; biotechnology; animal science; food science; genomics; emergent foodborne pathogens

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Streptococci cause mild-to-severe bacterial illnesses in domestic, companion, and wild animals. These organisms are typically commensals and can cause opportunistic infections in the host. Human infection, which is rare, generally occurs through direct contact with infected animals or the consumption of contaminated products derived from them. Most cases are sporadic, but organisms such as S. equi subsp. zooepidemicus (SEZ) have caused severe outbreaks. This Special Issue aims to publish original and review articles concerning early diagnosis, characterization, and treatment outcomes for these underestimated pathogens.

Dr. Alexandra Chiaverini
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Animals is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • streptococcus
  • One Health
  • surveillance
  • whole-genome sequencing
  • AMR
  • virulence

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

14 pages, 2489 KiB  
Article
Streptococcus equi subsp. zooepidemicus: Epidemiological and Genomic Findings of an Emerging Pathogen in Central Italy
by Francesca Cito, Cristina Esmeralda Di Francesco, Daniela Averaimo, Alexandra Chiaverini, Alessandra Alessiani, Marco Di Domenico, Marta Cresci, Marco Rulli, Maria Chiara Cantelmi, Maria Daniela Di Bernardo, Angelo Giammarino, Giacomo Vincifori and Antonio Petrini
Animals 2025, 15(10), 1351; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani15101351 - 8 May 2025
Abstract
Streptococcus equi subsp. zooepidemicus (SEZ) is a major problem in equine veterinary medicine. Typically, a commensal in horses, SEZ can cause severe disease including respiratory infections, septicaemia and reproductive tract infections under certain conditions. Recent evidence suggests that humans can also develop severe [...] Read more.
Streptococcus equi subsp. zooepidemicus (SEZ) is a major problem in equine veterinary medicine. Typically, a commensal in horses, SEZ can cause severe disease including respiratory infections, septicaemia and reproductive tract infections under certain conditions. Recent evidence suggests that humans can also develop severe disease infection through direct contact with infected animals or the consumption of contaminated unpasteurised milk and milk products. This study investigates SEZ strains isolated from nasal swabs of equidae in central Italy in 2023 to describe the epidemiology and genomic characteristics of circulating strains. A sampling plan was implemented to randomly collect nasal swabs from equid farms in the Abruzzo and Molise regions. In addition, a sampling form was designed to collect information on risk factors related to the presence of the bacterium and the potential development of respiratory disease. Relative risk was used to measure the association between the presence of SEZ in the samples and various variables. The swabs were analysed by real-time PCR and isolation. To confirm the identification and characterise the strains, the isolates were fully sequenced by next-generation sequencing (NGS) using the Illumina platform. A total of 478 animals from 99 farms were sampled and 30% of the animals tested positive for SEZ (79% horses, 20% donkeys, 1% mules). Forty-five percent of the farms tested positive for SEZ. Monitoring the clonal spread of SEZ is essential to understand the ecology of this emerging zoonotic pathogen, to assess the risk, and to implement effective control measures. In addition, genomic assessments are recommended to investigate the pathogenicity of circulating strains. This study provides a comprehensive understanding of the epidemiology and genomic diversity of SEZ strains isolated in central Italy. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Streptococcus in the One-Health Prospective: Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prevention)
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