Research Publications (Food Safety)

Infant botulism is a potentially life-threatening paralytic disease that can be associated with prolonged morbidity if not rapidly diagnosed and treated. Four infants were diagnosed and treated for infant botulism in NSW, Australia, between May 2011 and August 2013. Despite the temporal relationship between the cases, there was no close geographical clustering or other epidemiological links.

This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of a blend of organic acids (OAs) in diets with or without antibiotic growth promoter (AGP) in chickens challenged with Clostridium perfringens. Day-old male broiler chicks were used in a trial with 4 treatments and 6 replicates of 50 birds per pen, for 43 days, in a completely randomized design. The treatments in a 2x2 factorial arrangement consisted of the presence or absence of enramycin (AGP) and of a blend of OA in the feed.

Campylobacter occur in fresh retail poultry products as a result of their colonization of the gastro-intestinal tract of chickens during growth. Feed additives could be used for suppression of Campylobacter levels in the chickens prior to slaughter. To address this opportunity, feed manufacturers are targeting natural antimicrobials from plant material as new forms of consumer-accepted feed additives.

Salmonella enterica is a zoonotic pathogen which can readily pass from animal to man through the consumption of contaminated food. The prevalence of Salmonella enterica associated with poultry and poultry meat products has been well-documented and this prevalence has both public health and economic implications. The estimated total cost for nontyphoidal Salmonella is in excess of 14 billion dollars/year in the United States alone.

Campylobacter is one of the leading causes of foodborne illness worldwide and is associated with consumption of poultry products. One potential strategy to reduce Campylobacter colonization in poultry is the use of probiotics. In an attempt to reduce Campylobacter in poultry, we isolated 117 GRAS (generally recognized as safe) bacterial isolates from the ceca of healthy birds and evaluated their efficacy against Campylobacter, using a soft agar overlay technique.

The human gastrointestinal epithelium makes up the largest barrier separating the body from the external environment. Whereas invasive pathogens cause epithelial barrier disruption, probiotic microorganisms modulate tight junction regulation and improve epithelial barrier function. In addition, probiotic strains may be able to reduce epithelial barrier disruption caused by pathogenic species.

The antimicrobial and antioxidant effects of Citrus aurantium L. flowers (Bahar narang) extract (BE; 500, 1,000 and 2,000 ppm) were studied in traditional yoghurt stew during storage at 4C for 28 days. The contents of total phenolics and flavonoids in BE were 81 ± 1.8 and 46 ± 2.4 mg/g, respectively. In vitro antibacterial activity of BE showed that BE had a strong antimicrobial activity against Escherichia coli O157:H7, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus cereus.

The inhibitory activities of salvia and basil essential oils (EOs) against chemical and microbial spoilage in Iranian white cheese were investigated. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration obtained for salvia against Listeria monocytogenes were 0.015 and 0.02%, and for basil were 0.05 and 0.06%, respectively.

The aim of this study was to examine the genetically mediated antimicrobial resistance in 94 coagulase-negative staphylococcal (CNS) milk isolates (buffalo, n = 88, and cow, n = 6), and to determine whether antimicrobial resistance profiles differed between bacterial species. Our analysis of 94 CNS isolates from milk confirmed the well-established multiresistant character of staphylococci in the dairy setting.

Campylobacter have been found in lymphoid tissue of poultry, but the location in these tissues has not been determined. The objective of this study was to determine if Campylobacter are on the outside or on the inside of the spleen. For external (ES) spleen sampling 2 days post-inoculation, each spleen was rinsed with 3 mL of Bolton's enrichment broth (BEB). For internal (IS) spleen sampling, each rinsed spleen was submerged into 70% ethanol for 10 s, removed and submerged into 0.85% saline.

With an Escherichia coli O157:H7 virulent bacteriophage, M8AEC16, biocontrol efficiency of phages on a highly risky, ready-to-eat, traditional delicacy food called “raw meatball” under different storage conditions was investigated. Phage, belonging to the Myoviridae family, was isolated from the wastewater of a local slaughterhouse and showed a broad lytic activity toward many E. coli O157:H7 strains with high efficiency of plating and O157 specificity.

The aim of the present study was to investigate chemical composition and antibacterial activity of essential oil from the leaf of Mentha spicata plant against common food-borne pathogenic bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus cereus, Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella typhimurium, and Escherichia coli O157:H7). Chemical composition of the essential oil was identified by gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometer detector (GC-MS).

Botulinum neurotoxin (BoNT), derived from Clostridium botulinum, has been used therapeutically for focal dystonia, spasticity, and chronic migraine. Its spectrum as a potential treatment for neuropathic pain has grown. Recent opinions on the mechanism behind the antinociceptive effects of BoNT suggest that it inhibits the release of peripheral neurotransmitters and inflammatory mediators from sensory nerves.

Publication date: February 2016
, Volume 60
Author(s): S. Belluco, L. Barco, A. Roccato, A. Ricci

Publication date: February 2016
, Volume 60
Author(s): Qianqian Yu, Mengya Niu, Mengquan Yu, Yanhong Liu, Dapeng Wang, Xianming Shi

Publication date: December 2015
, Volume 52
Author(s): Alexandre Ceugniez, Djamel Drider, Philippe Jacques, Françoise Coucheney

Mark Achtman, Zhemin Zhou, Xavier Didelot

Publication date: September 2015
, Volume 98, Issue 9
Author(s): T. Schmidt, M.M. Kock, M.M. Ehlers

Foodborne Pathogens and Disease , Vol. 0, No. 0.

Foodborne Pathogens and Disease , Vol. 0, No. 0.

A study was conducted to determine the prevalence and spatial distribution of Salmonella infection in Pennsylvania raccoons (Procyon lotor), common wildlife mammals known to occupy overlapping habitats with humans and domestic food animals. The Pennsylvania Game Commission provided a total of 371 raccoon intestinal samples from trapped and road-killed raccoons collected between May and November 2011.

Foodborne Pathogens and Disease , Vol. 0, No. 0.

Publication date: Available online 12 August 2015

Author(s): E.M. Smith, Z.N. Willis, M. Blakeley, F. Lovatt, K.J. Purdy, L.E. Green

Raquel Montiel, Izaskun Martín-Cabrejas, Margarita Medina

A novel target-enriched multiplex polymerase chain reaction (Tem-PCR) assay for the simultaneous detection of Salmonella spp., Listeria monocytogenes and Escherichia coli O157:H7 was developed in the present study. The invA, hly and rfbE genes were selected as target genes for identifying Salmonella spp., L. monocytogenes and E. coli O157:H7, respectively.