Aspergillus fumigatus isolated from diverse wildfowl exhibit distinct antifungal susceptibility profiles driven by genetic and non-genetic determinants
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Invasive aspergillosis (IA) is a fungal infection caused by Aspergillus species affecting humans and animals, including birds. Such infections have severe impacts on host health, with the efficacy of current treatment options dwindling against rising rates of antifungal resistance. This scenario represents a critical One Health challenge influenced by climate change at the intersection of animal, human, and environmental health. In this study, we isolated and identified four fungal isolates from infected wildfowl in Southern Ontario, Canada, as Aspergillus fumigatus. Antifungal susceptibility assays against amphotericin B, itraconazole, voriconazole and terbinafine were performed following the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute guidelines for filamentous fungi. All strains displayed similar sensitivity to amphotericin B and itraconazole, whereas differences were observed in the response to voriconazole and terbinafine. Next, we performed whole genome sequencing integrated with a comparative genomic analysis to define differences across isolates potentially influencing antifungal susceptibility. As expected, the isolates were phylogenetically similar but demonstrated distinct clustering with A. fumigatus isolate AfB6 mapping closely with the ATCC reference strain compared to the other isolates (i.e., AfB2, AfB8, and AfB7). Notably, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were detected across the strains with some correlation between SNPs in antifungal resistance-associated genes and susceptibility profiles; however, antifungal tolerance towards terbinafine was not directly correlated with genetic factors. These data suggest that A. fumigatus isolated from wildfowl with lethal infections from Southern Ontario, Canada, have varying levels of susceptibility to known antifungals and that drivers beyond the anticipated genetic factors influence antifungal response.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".