Airborne Fungal Spore Diversity Assessment Using Culture-Dependent and Metabarcoding Approaches in Bat-Inhabited Natural and Anthropogenic Roosts in Portugal.

Cave environments represent extreme and underexplored ecosystems wherein fungi play a crucial role in nutrient cycling and ecological dynamics. This study provides the first comprehensive assessment of fungal diversity in air samples from caves across Portugal, with six samples from five locations being assessed through culture-dependent and metabarcoding approaches. From the five bat roosts studied, eleven morphologically distinct fungal colonies were isolated, with genera such as , , and identified.

Multicentric Study on Enteric Protists Occurrence in Zoological Parks in Portugal.

Parasitic infections of the gastrointestinal tract of domestic animals play a major role in the transmission of disease, which in turn may result in financial and productive losses. Notwithstanding, studies on the burden and distribution of diarrheagenic protists in zoological gardens are still insufficient. Given the close animal-animal and animal-human interaction in these settings, Public Health concerns under the One Health context are raised.

Presence of in Tree- and Crevice-Dwelling Bats from Portugal.

Coronaviruses (CoVs) are RNA viruses capable of infecting a wide range of hosts, including mammals and birds, and have caused significant epidemics such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Bats, the second most diverse mammalian order, are hosts for various CoVs due to their unique immune responses and ecological traits. This study investigates CoV prevalence in crevice- and tree-dwelling bats in Portugal, a country with limited prior research on bat CoVs.

Airborne SARS-CoV-2 is more frequently detected in environments related to children and elderly but likely non-infectious, Norway, 2022.

This study investigates the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in indoor and outdoor environments in two cities in Norway between April and May 2022. With the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions in the country and a focus on vaccination, this research aims to shed light on the potential for virus transmission in various settings. Air sampling was conducted in healthcare and non-healthcare facilities, covering locations frequented by individuals across different age groups.

Quantification and Whole Genome Characterization of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in Wastewater and Air Samples.

Wastewater-based epidemiology has emerged as a promising and efficacious surveillance system for SARS-CoV-2 and other infectious diseases in many nations. The process typically involves wastewater concentration, nucleic acid extraction, amplification of selected genomic segments, and detection and quantification of the amplified genomic segment. This methodology can similarly be leveraged to detect and quantify infectious agents, such as SARS-CoV-2, in air samples.

Serological Cross-Reactivity in Zoonotic Flaviviral Infections of Medical Importance.

Flaviviruses are enveloped RNA viruses from the family Flaviviridae that comprise many important human pathogenic arboviruses such as Yellow Fever, Dengue, and Zika viruses. Because they belong to the same genus, these viruses show sequence and structural homology among them, which results in serological cross-reactivity. Upon infection, the immune system produces both species-specific and cross-reactive antibodies, and depending on the virus, in a successive flavivirus infection, cross-reactive antibodies either enhance protection or exacerbate the disease-the latter usually due to antibody-dependent enhancement.

SARS-CoV-2 in outdoor air following the third wave lockdown release, Portugal, 2021.

Aiming to contribute with more data on the presence of SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) in outdoor environments, we performed air sampling in outdoor terraces from restaurants in three major cities of Portugal in April 2021, following the third wave lockdown release in the country. Air samples (=19) were collected in 19 restaurant terraces during lunch time. Each air sample was collected using a Coriolis Compact air sampler, followed by RNA extraction and real-time quantitative PCR for the detection of viral RNA.

Environmental Dissemination of SARS-CoV-2 in a University Hospital during the COVID-19 5th Wave Delta Variant Peak in Castile-León, Spain.

The dominant SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant (B.1.617.

Centralized and decentralized wastewater-based epidemiology to infer COVID-19 transmission - A brief review.

Wastewater-based epidemiology has shown to be a promising and innovative approach to measure a wide variety of illicit drugs that are consumed in the communities. In the same way as for illicit drugs, wastewater-based epidemiology is a promising approach to understand the prevalence of viruses in a community-level. The ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic created an unprecedented burden on public health and diagnostic laboratories all over the world because of the need for massive laboratory testing.

Detection of SARS-CoV-2 in the Indoor and Outdoor Areas of Urban Public Transport Systems of Three Major Cities of Portugal in 2021.

Airborne transmission is mainly associated with poorly ventilated and crowded indoor environments where people stay for long periods of time. As such, public transport is often perceived as having a high risk for the transmission of SARS-CoV-2. Considering that data on the detection of SARS-CoV-2 in public transport systems are scarce, we performed air sampling for SARS-CoV-2 in indoor and outdoor spaces of public transport systems in Portugal.

Evidence of Air and Surface Contamination with SARS-CoV-2 in a Major Hospital in Portugal.

As the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic hit Portugal, it forced the country to reintroduce lockdown measures due to hospitals reaching their full capacities. Under these circumstances, environmental contamination by SARS-CoV-2 in different areas of one of Portugal's major Hospitals was assessed between 21 January and 11 February 2021. Air samples ( = 44) were collected from eleven different areas of the Hospital (four COVID-19 and seven non-COVID-19 areas) using Coriolis μ and Coriolis Compact cyclone air sampling devices.

SARS-CoV-2 Virus-Host Interaction: Currently Available Structures and Implications of Variant Emergence on Infectivity and Immune Response.

Coronavirus disease 19, or COVID-19, is an infection associated with an unprecedented worldwide pandemic caused by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which has led to more than 215 million infected people and more than 4.5 million deaths worldwide. SARS-CoV-2 cell infection is initiated by a densely glycosylated spike (S) protein, a fusion protein, binding human angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (hACE2), that acts as the functional receptor through the receptor binding domain (RBD).

Surface contamination with SARS-CoV-2: A systematic review.

Little is known about contaminated surfaces as a route of transmission for SARS-CoV- 2 and a systematic review is missing and urgently needed to provide guidelines for future research studies. As such, the aim of the present study was to review the current scientific knowledge and to summarize the existing studies in which SARS-CoV-2 has been detected in inanimate surfaces. This systematic review includes studies since the emergence of SARS-CoV-2, available in PubMed/MEDLINE and Scopus.

A 2-Year Longitudinal Seroepidemiological Evaluation of Antibodies in a Cohort of Autochthonous Sheep from Central Portugal.

(1) Background: is an important zoonosis and one of the major causes of abortion in sheep worldwide. (2) Methods: We performed a 2-year longitudinal serological anti- IgG screening on a cohort of a spatially confined population of a Portuguese autochthonous sheep breed in central Portugal. (3) Results: From the screening of the 2015 and 2016 sera, an increase of seroprevalence was observed (57.

Airborne spread of infectious SARS-CoV-2: Moving forward using lessons from SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV.

Background: Although an increasing body of data reports the detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in air, this does not correlate to the presence of infectious viruses, thus not evaluating the risk for airborne COVID-19. Hence there is a marked knowledge gap that requires urgent attention. Therefore, in this systematic review, viability/stability of airborne SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV viruses is discussed.