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Research Publications (Food Safety)

This page tracks research articles published in national and international peer-reviewed journals. Recent articles are available ahead of print and searchable by Journal, Article Title, and Category. Research publications are tracked across six categories: Bacterial Pathogens, Chemical Contaminants, Natural Toxins, Parasites, Produce Safety, and Viruses. Articles produced by USDA Grant Funding Agencies (requires login) and FDA Grant Funding Agencies (requires login) are also tracked in Scopus.

Displaying 201 - 225 of 601

  1. Genetic diversity of Cryptosporidium spp. in non-human primates in rural and urban areas of Ethiopia

    • PLOS ONE
    • by Ambachew W. Hailu, Abraham Degarege, Beyene Petros, Damien Costa, Yonas Yimam Ayene, Ven-ceslas Villier, Abdelmounaim Mouhajir, Loic Favennec, Romy Razakandrainibe, Haileeysus Adamu Non-Human Primates (NHPs) harbor Cryptosporidium genotypes that can infect humans and vice versa.

      • Parasites
      • Cryptosporidium parvum
  2. Can cloning and sequencing help to genotype positive Toxoplasma gondii clinical samples? Results and validation using SAG3 as a model

    • Infection, Genetics and Evolution
    • Genotyping of T. gondii in human cases is relevant to understand the transmission patterns and epidemiology of this parasitosis.

      • Parasites
      • Toxoplasma gondii
  3. Seroprevalence and the Risk Factor of Toxoplasma gondii Infection to Slaughter Pigs in Chongqing, China

    • Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases
    • Toxoplasma gondii can infect all mammals, including humans, and can cause serious public health problems and economic losses. Pork is considered an important source of infection for humans, and seroepidemiological surveys are used to assess the level of infection in pig herds. To understand the current seroprevalence and potential risk factors of T.

      • Parasites
      • Toxoplasma gondii
  4. Occurrence, genetic characterization, and zoonotic importance of Giardia duodenalis in various species of rodents (Mus musculus, Rattus norvegicus, and Rattus rattus)

    • Comparative Immunology, Microbiology and Infectious Diseases
    • Giardia duodenalis is a well-known flagellated parasite and the causative agent of protozoal diarrhea in animals and humans worldwide. Current study was aimed at determination of G. duodenalis prevalence, genetic variation and zoonotic significance in various species of rodents in Shiraz, southwestern Iran.

      • Parasites
      • Giardia lamblia
  5. 3D holotomographic monitoring of Ca++ dynamics during ionophore-induced Neospora caninum tachyzoite egress from primary bovine host endothelial cells

    • Parasitology Research
    • Neospora caninum represents an obligate intracellular parasite that belongs to the phylum Apicomplexa and is a major abortive agent in bovines. During merogony, N. caninum tachyzoites invade and proliferate in host cells in vivo, including endothelial cells of lymphatic and blood vessels. The egress at the end of the lytic cycle is tightly regulated in apicomplexans. Evidence in Toxoplasma gondii shows that Ca++ signalling governs tachyzoite egress.

      • Parasites
      • Toxoplasma gondii
  6. Oxadiazon Derivatives Elicit Potent Intracellular Growth Inhibition against Toxoplasma gondii by Disrupting Heme Biosynthesis

    • ACS Infectious Diseases
    • Infections of Toxoplasma gondii can cause severe and sometimes fatal diseases in immunocompromised individuals. The de novo heme biosynthesis pathway is required for intracellular growth and pathogenesis, making it an appealing therapeutic target. We synthesized a small library of derivatives of the herbicide oxadiazon, a known inhibitor of the penultimate reaction within the heme biosynthesis pathway in plants, catalyzed by protoporphyrinogen oxidase (PPO).

      • Parasites
      • Toxoplasma gondii
  7. Current status of intestinal parasitosis among patients attending teaching hospitals in Zagazig district, Northeastern Egypt

    • Parasitology Research
    • Almost 80% of health problems in the developing world are due to malnutrition and infectious diseases, which are mainly parasitic. Updated records on the prevalence of parasitic infections and the potential risk factors are essential to enhancing control strategies. Therefore, this study was conducted to evaluate the current situation of intestinal parasitism among patients attending teaching hospitals in Zagazig district, Northeastern Egypt. The study involved five hundred cases.

      • Parasites
      • Giardia lamblia
  8. Enhanced detection of Giardia duodenalis mixed assemblage infections in pre-weaned dairy calves using next generation sequencing

    • Veterinary Parasitology
    • Giardia duodenalis is one of the most common parasitic causes of gastrointestinal illness in humans worldwide with widespread infections in mammalian hosts. It frequently infects cattle, producing a high number of cysts. Cattle can harbor both host-adapted assemblage E and human pathogenic assemblages A and B.

      • Parasites
      • Giardia lamblia
  9. Comparative performance of five recombinant and chimeric antigens in a time-resolved fluorescence immunoassay for detection of Toxoplasma gondii infection in cats

    • Veterinary Parasitology
    • Felids are definitive hosts of Toxoplasma gondii, being the only hosts that can spread the infection through oocyst shedding in their feces. The elevated presence of this parasite in the domestic cat (Felis catus), and its close contact with humans, make it necessary to obtain reliable diagnostic methods to detect positive animals as a public health measure.

      • Parasites
      • Toxoplasma gondii
  10. Isolation, genotyping and virulence determination of a Toxoplasma gondii strain from non‐human primate from China

    • Transboundary and Emerging Diseases
    • Transboundary and Emerging Diseases, Volume 69, Issue 2, Page 919-925, March 2022. Toxoplasma gondii infects almost all warm-blooded animals, including humans and non-human primates. Many cases of T. gondii infection in non-human primates have been reported worldwide. In this study, 15 monkeys were collected from zoos in Henan Province between 2016 and 2019.

      • Parasites
      • Toxoplasma gondii
  11. A type II variant of Toxoplasma gondii infects the Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra) in southern Italy

    • Transboundary and Emerging Diseases
    • Transboundary and Emerging Diseases, Volume 69, Issue 2, Page 874-880, March 2022. Toxoplasmosis, caused by the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii, is a widespread zoonosis capable to affect a wide range of warm-blooded vertebrates. In the past two decades, T. gondii emerged as a significant aquatic pathogen with some pathogenic atypical genotypes isolated and characterized from stranded marine mammals.

      • Parasites
      • Toxoplasma gondii
  12. Cryptosporidiosis outbreak caused by Cryptosporidium parvum subtype IIdA20G1 in neonatal calves

    • Transboundary and Emerging Diseases
    • Transboundary and Emerging Diseases, Volume 69, Issue 2, Page 278-285, March 2022. Cryptosporidium parvum is a major zoonotic pathogen responsible for outbreaks of severe diarrhoea in humans and calves. Almost all investigations of cryptosporidiosis outbreaks caused by C. parvum have focused on its IIa subtype family in industrialized nations.

      • Parasites
      • Cryptosporidium parvum
  13. Different Drugs, Same End: Ultrastructural Hallmarks of Autophagy in Pathogenic Protozoa

    • Frontiers in Microbiology
    • Protozoan parasites interact with a wide variety of organisms ranging from bacteria to humans, representing one of the most common causes of parasitic diseases and an important public health problem affecting hundreds of millions of people worldwide. The current treatment for these parasitic diseases remains unsatisfactory and, in some cases, very limited.

      • Parasites
      • Giardia lamblia
  14. Toxoplasma gondii infection in wild omnivorous and carnivorous animals in Central Europe – a brief overview

    • Veterinary Parasitology
    • Toxoplasmosis is an important zoonosis caused by the intracellular protozoan Toxoplasma gondii. This parasite is known to infect almost all warm blooded animals, and meat containing tissue cysts is one of the main sources of infection for omnivorous an carnivorous animals.

      • Parasites
      • Toxoplasma gondii
  15. The Long and Short of Next Generation Sequencing for Cryptosporidium Research

    • Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology
    • The intestinal parasite Cryptosporidium is a significant cause of severe diarrhoeal disease that can have long term effects. Therapeutic options remain limited despite a significant impact on public health, partly due to various challenges in the field of Cryptosporidium research, including the availability of genomic and transcriptomic data from environmental and clinical isolates.

      • Parasites
      • Cryptosporidium parvum
  16. Biogenic silver nanoparticles reduce Toxoplasma gondii infection and proliferation in RAW 264.7 macrophages by inducing tumor necrosis factor-alpha and reactive oxygen species production in the cells

    • Microbes and Infection
    • Owing to the serious adverse effects caused by pyrimethamine and sulfadiazine, the drugs commonly used to treat toxoplasmosis, there is a need for treatment alternatives for this disease. Nanotechnology has enabled significant advances toward this goal. This study was conducted to evaluate the activity of biogenic silver nanoparticles (AgNp-Bio) in RAW 264.7 murine macrophages infected with the RH strain of Toxoplasma gondii. The macrophages were infected with T.

      • Parasites
      • Toxoplasma gondii
  17. Double drugging of prolyl-tRNA synthetase provides a new paradigm for anti-infective drug development

    • PLOS Pathogens
    • by Yogavel Manickam, Nipun Malhotra, Siddhartha Mishra, Palak Babbar, Abhishek Dusane, Benoît Laleu, Valeria Bellini, Mohamed-Ali Hakimi, Alexandre Bougdour, Amit Sharma Toxoplasmosis is caused by Toxoplasma gondii and in immunocompromised patients, it may lead to seizures, encephalitis or death.

      • Parasites
      • Toxoplasma gondii
  18. Disc and actin-associated Protein 1 influences attachment in the intestinal parasite Giardia lamblia

    • PLOS Pathogens
    • by Melissa C. Steele-Ogus, Ava M. Obenaus, Nathan J. Sniadecki, Alexander R. Paredez The deep-branching eukaryote Giardia lamblia is an extracellular parasite that attaches to the host intestine via a microtubule-based structure called the ventral disc. Control of attachment is mediated in part by the movement of two regions of the ventral disc that either permit or exclude the passage of fluid under the disc.

      • Parasites
      • Giardia lamblia
  19. Toxoplasma gondii phosphatidylserine flippase complex ATP2B-CDC50.4 critically participates in microneme exocytosis

    • PLOS Pathogens
    • by Hugo Bisio, Aarti Krishnan, Jean-Baptiste Marq, Dominique Soldati-Favre Regulated microneme secretion governs motility, host cell invasion and egress in the obligate intracellular apicomplexans. Intracellular calcium oscillations and phospholipid dynamics critically regulate microneme exocytosis. Despite its importance for the lytic cycle of these parasites, molecular mechanistic details about exocytosis are still missing.

      • Parasites
      • Toxoplasma gondii
  20. Toxoplasma gondii Genotyping: A Closer Look Into Europe

    • Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology
    • Toxoplasma gondii is a major zoonotic agent which may cause harmful effects mainly in pregnant and immunocompromised hosts. Despite many efforts on its genetic characterization, an entirely clear picture of the population structure in Europe has not been achieved yet. The present study aimed to summarize the available genotyping information and to map the distribution of circulating strains. There is consensus on type II T.

      • Parasites
      • Toxoplasma gondii
  21. Molecular detection of Toxoplasma gondii and Neospora caninum in rock pigeons (Columba livia) in Punjab, Pakistan

    • Parasitology Research
    • Rock pigeons are synanthropic birds and live in close association within human settlements. Synanthropic birds are considered potential carriers of diseases and pose a subsequent risk of their transmission to humans. Neospora caninum and Toxoplasma gondii are intracellular protozoans infecting a wide range of hosts, as well as birds. Data related to the incidence of these protozoans in rock pigeons in Pakistan are scant. The aims of the study were to detect T.

      • Parasites
      • Toxoplasma gondii
  22. Disease burden from simultaneous exposure of Cryptosporidium sp. and Giardia sp. and land use vulnerability assessment in a Costa Rican drinking water system.

    • Microbial Risk Analysis
    • Human and animal feces are one of the main pollutants in drinking water systems (DWS). Both sources of fecal pollution are related to environmental conditions, such as poor land use management and little micro-basin protection. Cryptosporidium sp. and Giardia sp. are zoonotic protozoan water and foodborne transmitted parasitic pathogens and a frequent cause of diarrhea in children in low- and middle-income countries.

      • Parasites
      • Cryptosporidium parvum
      • Giardia lamblia
  23. Giardia duodenalis in a clinically healthy population of captive zoo chimpanzees: Rapid antigen testing, diagnostic real-time PCR and faecal microbiota profiling

    • International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife
    • Giardia duodenalis is one of the most common intestinal parasites of humans, with a worldwide distribution. Giardia duodenalis has been reported in both wild and captive populations of non-human primates, namely chimpanzees. In this study we investigated an entire troop of clinically healthy chimpanzees (n = 21) for the presence of G. duodenalis and its association with faecal microbiota profile.

      • Parasites
      • Giardia lamblia
  24. Ready-to-eat salads and berry fruits purchased in Italy contaminated by Cryptosporidium spp., Giardia duodenalis, and Entamoeba histolytica

    • International Journal of Food Microbiology
    • Ready-to-eat (RTE) salads and berries are increasingly consumed in industrialized countries. These products can be contaminated by pathogenic parasites that have been responsible for foodborne outbreaks worldwide. In Italy, there are few data on contamination of RTE salads and berries with parasite transmission stages and this requires more-in-depth investigations.

      • Parasites
      • Cryptosporidium parvum
      • Giardia lamblia
  25. Age and episode‐associated occurrence of Cryptosporidium species and subtypes in a birth‐cohort of dairy calves

    • Transboundary and Emerging Diseases
    • Transboundary and Emerging Diseases, Accepted Article. The role of species-specific immunity in infection patterns of Cryptosporidium spp. in humans and farm animals is not well understood. In the present study, the dynamics of Cryptosporidium infections in a natural cryptosporidiosis model was examined using genotyping, subtyping and whole genome sequencing tools. In a cross-sectional survey of Cryptosporidium spp.

      • Parasites
      • Cryptosporidium parvum