The Medical School, University of Oxford, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK.
Neonatology. 2011;100(4):404-8. doi: 10.1159/000328700. Epub 2011 Jul 27.
Group B streptococcus (GBS), the most significant cause of neonatal bacterial sepsis, is thought to have emerged in the 1960s. GBS also causes mastitis in cows, and there is indirect evidence that human GBS is derived from a bovine ancestor.
A major change in the collection of milk from farms, using bulk tanks rather than churns, occurred in the 1960s. We sought to define the temporal relationship between this change in farming and the emergence of GBS neonatal disease.
We searched PubMed for reports of GBS disease from 1930 until 1980 to more exactly determine the time of emergence of neonatal infection and supported this data with UK hospital admission statistics for GBS infections. We identified the dates of the change from churns to bulk tanks by searching the internet and books for information on the history of milk transportation, farming and milk collection in the UK.
There are no PubMed reports of neonatal GBS disease between 1930 and 1950, and reports from the UK only emerged in the mid-1960s, confirming the notion that GBS neonatal infection was a newly emergent disease in the 1960s. No national data on hospital admissions are available around this time, but the Oxford Record Linkage Study, with admission data available for Oxford from 1968, showed no cases of neonatal disease until 1974. Cow's milk collection in the UK switched to bulk tank between 1960 and 1979, and publications relating to GBS disease emerged soon after.
There is a temporal relationship between the emergence of neonatal GBS disease reports in the UK in the 1960s and a change in cow's milk collection. This finding may be a temporal coincidence or may add support to the notion that human GBS was historically derived from a bovine ancestor.
B 群链球菌（GBS）是导致新生儿细菌性败血症的主要原因，据认为它出现在 20 世纪 60 年代。GBS 还会引起奶牛乳腺炎，有间接证据表明人类 GBS 源自牛的祖先。
20 世纪 60 年代，农场牛奶收集方式发生了重大变化，从使用搅拌器改为使用大桶。我们试图确定这种农业变化与 GBS 新生儿疾病出现之间的时间关系。
我们在 PubMed 上搜索了 1930 年至 1980 年期间关于 GBS 疾病的报告，以更准确地确定新生儿感染的出现时间，并通过英国 GBS 感染住院统计数据支持这些数据。我们通过互联网和书籍搜索有关英国牛奶运输、农业和牛奶收集历史的信息，确定了从搅拌器改为大桶的日期。
在 1930 年至 1950 年期间，PubMed 上没有关于新生儿 GBS 疾病的报告，而英国的报告仅在 20 世纪 60 年代中期出现，证实了 GBS 新生儿感染是 20 世纪 60 年代新出现的疾病的观点。在此期间，没有关于住院人数的全国数据，但牛津记录链接研究提供了 1968 年牛津的入院数据，显示直到 1974 年才出现新生儿疾病病例。英国的牛奶收集在 1960 年至 1979 年间改为大桶收集，而与 GBS 疾病相关的出版物也在不久后出现。
英国 20 世纪 60 年代新生儿 GBS 疾病报告的出现与奶牛牛奶收集方式的变化之间存在时间关系。这一发现可能只是时间上的巧合，也可能为人类 GBS 历史上源自牛的祖先这一观点提供支持。
