Research Publications (Food Safety)

Rotavirus is one of the major causes of infectious gastroenteritis among infants and children, and live attenuated vaccines for rotavirus A (RVA), namely, Rotarix and RotaTeq, have recently become available in Japan. Rotavirus is known to be excreted from patients and accumulated in oysters similar to norovirus; however, the vaccine strains in aquatic environments or oysters have not yet been analyzed.

Author(s): Huiqiang Ma, Hua Yue, Yingying Luo, Siyi Li, Cheng Tang

Retail foodservice establishments (FSE) frequently utilize washes with sanitizing agents during fresh produce preparation. This study evaluated the efficacy of ozonated water on the inactivation of viruses, bacteria, and viruses in association with bacteria on produce surfaces.

J. L. Cannon et al. Noroviruses are a leading cause of acute gastroenteritis (AGE) among adults and children worldwide. NoroSurv is a global network for norovirus strain surveillance among children <5 years of age with AGE. Participants in 16 countries across 6 continents used standardized protocols for dual typing (genotype and polymerase type) and uploaded 1,325 dual-typed sequences to the NoroSurv web portal during 2016–2020.

Human noroviruses (HuNoVs) are one of the leading causes of acute gastroenteritis worldwide. HuNoVs are frequently detected in water and foodstuffs. Free chlorine and peroxynitrite (ONOO−) are two oxidants commonly encountered by HuNoVs in humans or in the environment during their natural life cycle. In this study, we defined the effects of these two oxidants on GII.4 HuNoVs and GII.4 virus-like particles (VLPs).

Human noroviruses (HuNoV) are the dominant cause of viral gastroenteritis in all age groups worldwide. In this study, we investigated the effects of pomegranate peel extract (PPE) on the reduction of HuNoV in different food models, on surfaces of fresh produce (green onion and cherry tomato), in low-fat milk, and simulated gastrointestinal fluids.

Human norovirus is regarded as the leading cause of epidemic acute gastroenteritis with GII.4 being the predominant genotype during the past decades. In the winter of 2014/2015, the GII.17 Kawasaki 2014 emerged as the predominant genotype, surpassing GII.4 in several East Asian countries. Hence, the influence of host immunity response on the continuous evolution of different GII.17 variants needs to be studied in depth.

A bacterial strain ODT-83 is isolated from oysters, which is capable of adsorbing norovirus (NoV) via histo-blood group antigen-like (HBGA-like) substances. To better understand its genetic background associated with the production of HBGA-like substances, the genome of the ODT-83 was completely sequenced and analyzed. The ODT-83 only contains one circular chromosome, with a length of 5,384,159 bp.

Human noroviruses are the most common viral cause of acute gastroenteritis worldwide. Currently, there are no approved vaccines or specific therapeutics to treat the disease. Some obstacles delaying the development of a norovirus vaccine are: (i) the extreme diversity presented by noroviruses; (ii) our incomplete understanding of immunity to noroviruses; and (iii) the lack of a robust cell culture system or animal model for human noroviruses.

This study describes the investigation of an outbreak of diarrhea, hemorrhagic colitis (HC), and hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) at a daycare center in southeastern Brazil, involving fourteen children, six sta...

Author(s): Anthony J. Silva, Zhihui Yang, Julia Wolfe, Kirsten A. Hirneisen, Shannon B. Ruelle, Angelica Torres, Donna Williams-Hill, Michael Kulka, Rosalee S. Hellberg

Author(s): Trond Møretrø, Christophe Nguyen-The, Pierrine Didier, Isabelle Maître, Tekla Izsó, Gyula Kasza, Silje E. Skuland, Maria João Cardoso, Vania B. Ferreira, Paula Teixeira, Daniela Borda, Loredana Dumitrascu, Corina Neagu, Anca Ioana Nicolau, Eduard Anfruns-Estrada, Mike Foden, Phil Voysey, Solveig Langsrud

The aim of the study was to assess human norovirus and feline calicivirus (FCV) surface free energy, hydrophobicity, and ability to interact with fresh foods and food-contact surfaces.

Background

The human norovirus GII.2 outbreak during the 2016–2017 winter season was of unprecedented scale and geographic distribution.

Methods

Author(s): Mi Rae Kim, Sangha Han, Sa Reum Park, Yoah Moon, Sang-Do Ha

by Forrest C. Walker, Ebrahim Hassan, Stefan T. Peterson, Rachel Rodgers, Lawrence A. Schriefer, Cassandra E. Thompson, Yuhao Li, Gowri Kalugotla, Carla Blum-Johnston, Dylan Lawrence, Broc T. McCune, Vincent R. Graziano, Larissa Lushniak, Sanghyun Lee, Alexa N. Roth, Stephanie M. Karst, Timothy J. Nice, Jonathan J. Miner, Craig B. Wilen, Megan T. Baldridge

Author(s): Jade Derrick, Philippa Hollinghurst, Sarah O'Brien, Nicola Elviss, David J. Allen, Miren Iturriza-Gómara

L. Barclay et al. We report a norovirus GIV outbreak in the United States, 15 years after the last reported outbreak. During May 2016 in Wisconsin, 53 persons, including 4 food handlers, reported being ill. The outbreak was linked to individually prepared fruit consumed as a fruit salad. The virus was phylogenetically classified as a novel GIV genotype.

Noroviruses are the predominant cause of acute gastroenteritis, with a single genotype (GII.4) responsible for the majority of infections. This prevalence is characterized by the periodic emergence of new variants that present substitutions at antigenic sites of the major structural protein (VP1), facilitating escape from herd immunity. Notably, the contribution...

Human noroviruses (HuNoV) are among the main causes of acute gastroenteritis worldwide. Frozen raspberries have been linked to several HuNoV food-related outbreaks. However, the extraction of HuNoV RNA from frozen raspberries remains challenging. Recovery yields are low, and real-time quantitative reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-qPCR) inhibitors limit the sensitivity of the detection methodologies.

Norovirus contamination of oysters is the lead cause of non-bacterial gastroenteritis and a significant food safety concern for the oyster industry. Here, norovirus reduction from Pacific oysters (Crassostrea gigas), contaminated in the marine environment, was studied in laboratory depuration trials and in two commercial settings.

Author(s): René A.M. Dirks, Claudia C.C. Jansen, Geke Hägele, Ans J.T. Zwartkruis-Nahuis, Aloys S.L. Tijsma, Ingeborg L.A. Boxman

Human norovirus is the leading cause of acute nonbacterial gastroenteritis in people of all ages worldwide. Currently, no licensed norovirus vaccine, pharmaceutical drug, or therapy is available for the control of norovirus infection. Here, we used a rice transgenic system, MucoRice, to produce a variable domain of a llama heavy-chain antibody fragment (VHH) specific for human norovirus (MucoRice-VHH). VHH is a small heat- and acid-stable protein that resembles a monoclonal antibody.

The detection of viruses and bacteria which can pose a threat either to shellfish health or shellfish consumers remains difficult. The current detection methods rely on point sampling of water, a method that gives a snapshot of the microorganisms present at the time of sampling. In order to obtain better representativeness of the presence of these microorganisms over time, we have developed passive sampling using the adsorption capacities of polymer membranes.