The CDC’s list of highest priority bioterrorism agents is a short one, with only six pathogens making the cut. Among the more familiar names on the list, such as anthrax, botulism, plague, smallpox, and viral hemorrhagic fevers, is the topic of today’s episode: Francisella tularensis. Unless you’re a hunter or work with small mammals, you may not recognize the name of this pathogen or the disease it causes – tularemia – let alone the characteristics that earned it a place on the CDC’s list. By the end of this episode, though, all that will have changed. Join us as we explore why this pathogen’s brutal biology makes it a force to be reckoned with, how the history of its discovery has surprising origins in the devastating 1906 San Francisco earthquake, and what promises future research may hold for protection against this deadly disease.
| History | Biology |
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| Johansson, Anders, et al. “Worldwide genetic relationships among Francisella tularensis isolates determined by multiple-locus variable-number tandem repeat analysis.” Journal of bacteriology 186.17 (2004): 5808-5818. | Harrist, A., Cherry, C., Kwit, N., Bryan, K., Pappert, R., Petersen, J., Buttke, D., Wong, D. and Nelson, C., 2019. Francisella tularensis exposure among national park service employees during an epizootic: Devils Tower National Monument, Wyoming, 2015. Vector-borne and zoonotic diseases, 19(5), pp.316-322. |
| Lake, G. C., and Edward Francis. “Tularaemia Francis 1921: VII. Six cases of tularaemia occurring in laboratory workers.” Public Health Reports (1896-1970) (1922): 392-413. | Zellner, B. and Huntley, J.F., 2019. Ticks and tularemia: do we know what we don’t know?. Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology, 9, p.146. |
| Lu, Yongfeng, et al. “Phylogeography of Francisella tularensis from Tibet, China: evidence for an asian origin and radiation of holarctica-type tularemia.” Ticks and tick-borne diseases 7.5 (2016): 865-868. | Hestvik, G., Warns-Petit, E., Smith, L.A., Fox, N.J., Uhlhorn, H., Artois, M., Hannant, D., Hutchings, M.R., Mattsson, R., Yon, L. and Gavier-Widen, D., 2015. The status of tularemia in Europe in a one-health context: a review. Epidemiology & Infection, 143(10), pp.2137-2160. |
| Maurin, Max. “Francisella tularensis as a potential agent of bioterrorism?.” Expert Review of Anti-Infective Therapy 13.2 (2015): 141-144. | European Food Safety Authority and European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, 2022. The European Union One Health 2021 Zoonoses Report. EFSA Journal, 20(12), p.e07666. |
| McCoy, George W., and Charles W. Chapin. “Further observations on a plague-like disease of rodents with a preliminary note on the causative agent, Bacterium tularense.” The Journal of infectious diseases (1912): 61-72. | Sunagar, R., Kumar, S., Franz, B.J. and Gosselin, E.J., 2016. Tularemia vaccine development: paralysis or progress?. Vaccine: development and therapy, 6, p.9. |
| McCoy, George W. “Bubonic plague: With special reference to that of ground squirrel origin.” Journal of the American Medical Association 57.16 (1911): 1268-1270. | Kudryavtseva, T. Yu, V. P. Popov, A. N. Mokrievich, A. V. Kholin, A. V. Mazepa, E. S. Kulikalova, D. V. Trankvilevsky, M. V. Khramov, and I. A. Dyatlov. “Epidemiological and epizootiological situation on tularemia in Russia and neighboring countries in 2019, the forecast for 2020.” Problems of Particularly Dangerous Infections 1 (2020): 21-32. |
| Oyston, Petra CF, Anders Sjöstedt, and Richard W. Titball. “Tularaemia: bioterrorism defence renews interest in Francisella tularensis.” Nature Reviews Microbiology 2.12 (2004): 967-978. | |
| Pilo, Paola. “Phylogenetic lineages of Francisella tularensis in animals.” Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology 8 (2018): 258. | |
| Risse, Guenter B. “” A long pull, a strong pull, and all together”: San Francisco and bubonic plague, 1907-1908.” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 66.2 (1992): 260-286. | |
| Sjöstedt, Anders. “Tularemia: history, epidemiology, pathogen physiology, and clinical manifestations.” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1105.1 (2007): 1-29. | |
| Smith‐Guzmán, Nicole E., Jerome C. Rose, and Kathleen Kuckens. “Beyond the differential diagnosis: new approaches to the bioarchaeology of the Hittite plague.” New Directions in Biocultural Anthropology (2016): 295-316. | |
| Svensson, Kerstin, et al. “Evolution of subspecies of Francisella tularensis.” Journal of bacteriology 187.11 (2005): 3903-3908. | |
| Tärnvik, A., and L. Berglund. “Tularaemia.” European Respiratory Journal 21.2 (2003): 361-373. | |
| Telford III, Sam R., and Heidi K. Goethert. “Ecology of Francisella tularensis.” Annual review of entomology 65 (2020): 351-372. | |
| Vogler, Amy J., et al. “Phylogeography of Francisella tularensis: global expansion of a highly fit clone.” Journal of bacteriology 191.8 (2009): 2474-2484. |
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