Research Publications (Food Safety)

The increasing demand for slipper oyster ( Crassostrea iredalei ) has propelled farmers to expand oyster cultivation areas in the Philippines, chiefly for local consumption and feasibly for export overseas. Being filter feeders, oysters can accumulate pathogens from their surrounding waters, which can cause foodborne diseases once consumed. Monitoring oyster farming areas for microbiological quality and levels of heavy metals is therefore crucial.

Salmonella is one of the major pathogenic bacteria causing food-borne diseases. The rapid detection of Salmonella in food is of great significance to food safety. In this study, the loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) method was developed and the primers were designed targeting the invA gene of Salmonella.

Rapid and sensitive detection of foodborne pathogens is of great importance for food safety. Here, a set of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) biosensors based on a O-carboxymethyl chitosan target gadolinium (Gd) probe was developed to quickly detect Salmonella in milk by combining NMR technology and bioimmunotechnology with membrane filtration technology.

Author(s): Jing Qian, Liangjun Ma, Wenjing Yan, Hong Zhuang, Mingming Huang, Jianhao Zhang, Jiamei Wang

An antimicrobial peptide [Bacillus antimicrobial peptide (BAMP)] produced by Bacillus paralicheniformis was isolated from the Indian traditional fermented food and characterized. The antimicrobial peptide BAMP showed many unique features such as thermostability (4.0–125°C), pH tolerance (pH 2.0–9.0), and resistance to physiological enzymes (trypsin, chymotrypsin, pepsin, proteinase K, protease, and catalase), and food-grade metal salts do not inhibit the activity.

Acute non-typhoidal salmonellosis (NTS) caused by Salmonella enterica Typhimurium (STM) is among the most prevalent of foodborne diseases. A global rising of antibiotic resistance strains of STM raises an urgent need for alternative methods to control this important pathogen. Major human food animals which harbor STM in their gut are cattle, swine, and poultry.

Salmonella spp. is recognized as an important zoonotic pathogen. The emergence of antimicrobial resistance in Salmonella enterica poses a great public health concern worldwide. While the knowledge on the incidence and the characterization of different S. enterica serovars causing chick embryo death remains obscure in China. In this study, we obtained 45 S. enterica isolates from 2,139 dead chick embryo samples collected from 28 breeding chicken hatcheries in Henan province.

This study was designed to evaluate the stability of chloramphenicol, erythromycin, tetracycline, cephalothin, ciprofloxacin, and tobramycin against antibiotic-sensitive Salmonella Typhimurium (ASST) and antibiotic-resistant S. Typhimurium (ARST) during the broth microdilution assay. The antimicrobial activity in association with antibiotic stability was measured by using antibiotic susceptibility, time-delayed inoculation, time-extended incubation, and inoculum effect assays.

The complexity of the food system makes analyzing microbiological data from food studies challenging since many of the assumptions (e.g., linear relationship between independent and dependent variable, independence of observations) made by common analytical approaches (e.g., ANOVA) are violated. Further, repeated sampling within establishments introduces longitudinal correlation that must be accounted for during analyses.

Salmonella is a foodborne pathogen associated with poultry meat. This study aimed to determine the efficiency and quality attributes of two antimicrobial agents to reduce Salmonella on raw chicken meat when applied individually and in combination using an electrostatic spray cabinet.

Salmonella causes foodborne disease outbreaks worldwide and raises considerable concerns about public health and economic losses. To determine prevalence, serovar, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) patterns, and extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) genes, the present cross-sectional study collected a total of 418 fecal, carcass (three slaughterhouses), pork and cutting board (four markets) samples from a province in central Thailand in 2017 and 2018.

Molecular Nutrition & Food Research, Volume 65, Issue 16, August 2021.

Salmonella Typhimurium carrying the multidrug resistance (MDR) plasmid pMG101 was isolated from three burns patients in Boston United States in 1973. pMG101 was transferrable into other Salmonella spp. and Escherichia coli hosts and carried what was a novel and unusual combination of AMR genes and silver resistance.

Objective

This study aims to analyze the molecular epidemiology, resistance, and pathogenicity of Salmonella enterica subsp. diarizonae isolated from children.

Methods

Whole genome sequencing was carried out, and molecular serotypes, sequence types, resistance genes, and virulence genes of S. enterica subsp. diarizonae isolates were analyzed. Antimicrobial susceptibility test was determined by commercialized microdilution method.

Results

Author(s): Samuel J. Bloomfield, Jackie Benschop, Anne C. Midwinter, Patrick J. Biggs, Jonathan C. Marshall, David T.S. Hayman, Philip E. Carter, Marian Price-Carter, Leah Toombs-Ruane, Holly Gray, Sara Burgess, Nigel P. French

Author(s): Richard K. Gast, Deana R. Jones, Rupa Guraya, Kenneth E. Anderson, Darrin M. Karcher

Yaks (Bos grunniens) live primarily in high-altitude hypoxic conditions and have a unique intestinal micro-ecosystem, remarkable adaptability, and strong climatic resistance. Accumulating evidence revealed the importance of probiotics in host metabolism, gut microbiota, growth performance, and health. The goal of this study was to screen out probiotics with excellent probiotic potential for clinical application.

Background The Global Enteric Multicenter Study (GEMS) determined the etiologic agents of moderate-to-severe diarrhea (MSD) in children under 5 years old in Africa and Asia. Here, we describe the prevalence and antimicrobial susceptibility of nontyphoidal Salmonella (NTS) serovars in GEMS and examine the phylogenetics of Salmonella Typhimurium ST313 isolates.

Salmonella spp. is one of the most common foodborne pathogens in humans. Here, we summarize the laboratory surveillance data of human non-typhoidal salmonellosis in Greece for 2003–2020. The total number of samples declined over the study period (p < 0.001). Of the 193 identified serotypes, S. Enteritidis was the most common (52.8%), followed by S. Typhimurium (11.5%), monophasic S. Typhimurium 1,4,[5],12:i:- (4.4%), S. Bovismorbificans (3.4%) and S. Oranienburg (2.4%).

Author(s): Abraham Majak Gut, Todor Vasiljevic, Thomas Yeager, Osaana N. Donkor

Previous empirical evidence has demonstrated that low socioeconomic status (SES) communities have higher rates of gastroenteritis; however, there is a paucity of literature on the safety and quality of food (fresh produce) accessible to these communities. The overarching goal of this study was to investigate the microbial safety and quality of fresh leafy greens from low and high SES neighborhoods in the Houston, Texas area.

Bacterial inactivation using bacteriophages (or phages) has emerged as an effective solution for bacterial infections, but the screening methods used to evaluate the effectiveness of the phages to inactivate bacteria are not fast, reliable or precise enough.

With the rapid advancement of sequencing technology, handling of large sequencing data to analyze for protein coding capacity and functionality of predicted proteins has become an urgent demand. There is a lack of simple and effective tools to functionally annotate large number of unknown proteins in a personalized and customized workflow. To address this, we developed Duo, which batch-analyze functional similarities of predicted proteins.

Author(s): Maomao Ma, Junxin Zhao, Xianghui Yan, Zheling Zeng, Dongman Wan, Ping Yu, Jiaheng Xia, Guohua Zhang, Deming Gong