Research Publications (Food Safety)

Babesia ovis is a tick‐transmitted protozoan haemoparasite causing ovine babesiosis in sheep and goats leading to considerable economic loss in Turkey and neighbouring countries. There are no vaccines available, therapeutic drugs leave toxic residues in meat and milk, and tick vector control entails environmental risks.

BACKGROUND Sulfamethazine (SMZ), a veterinary drug widely used in animal husbandry, is harmful to human health when excess residues are present in food. In this study, a fast, reliable, and sensitive immunochromatographic assay (ICA) was developed on the basis of the competitive format by using time‐resolved fluorescent nanobeads (TRFN) as label for the detection of SMZ in egg, honey, and pork samples.

Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo) is an offensive phytopathogen that can invade a wide range of plant hosts to develop bacterial diseases, including the well-known rice bacterial leaf blight. However, few agrochemicals have been identified to effectively prevent and eliminate Xoo-induced diseases. Thus, designing novel antibacterial compounds on the basis of the potential targets from Xoo may lead to the discovery of highly efficient and innovative anti-Xoo agents.

Amphotericin B (AmB, 1) is the drug of choice for treating the most serious systemic fungal or protozoan infections. Nevertheless, its application is limited by low solubility in aqueous media and serious side effects such as infusion-related reactions, hemolytic toxicity, and nephrotoxicity. Owing to these limitations, it is essential to search for the polyene derivatives with better chemotherapeutic properties.

Antibiotic residues are major contaminants in milk because of their frequent use in agriculture and animal husbandry. In particular, streptomycin, an aminoglycoside antibiotic, is a potential risk to consumers because of its ototoxicity, anaphylaxis, and growth inhibition.

Author(s): Elisabetta Bonerba, Sara Panseri, Francesco Arioli, Maria Nobile, Valentina Terio, Federica Di Cesare, Giuseppina Tantillo, Luca Maria Chiesa

Biochars from Chinese medicine material residues and furfural residues at 300–600 °C (MBC300–MBC600 and FBC300–FBC600) were used as adsorbents for removing tetracycline (TC) from water. The influence of pH and co-existing of cations or low molecular weight organic acids (LMWOAs) was investigated on TC adsorption. Further, the bulk biochars were treated by ball milling into sub-micron particles, and their properties and adsorption performance toward TC were also characterized.

Even though silver and silver nanoparticles at low concentrations are considered safe for human health, their steadily increasing use and associated release in nature is not without risk since it may result in the selection of silver-resistant microorganisms, thus impeding the utilization of silver as antimicrobial agent. Furthermore, increased resistance to metals may be accompanied by increased antibiotic resistance.

Marbofloxacin (MBF) is a key class of synthetic fluoroquinolone antibiotic that is commonly used as a veterinary drug. However, excess residue of MBF in animal-derived food samples, such as milk, is harmful to consumers. In this study, 4 mAb against MBF, namely, M4E3, M7A6, M3C7, and M5C6, were produced.

Corynebacterium urealyticum is a non-diphtherial urease-producing clinically relevant corynebacterial, most frequently involved in urinary tract infections. Most of the C. urealyticum clinical isolates are frequently resistant to several antibiotics. We investigated the susceptibility of 40 C. urealyticum isolated in our institution during the period 2005–2017 to eight compounds representative of the main clinically relevant classes of antimicrobial agents.

Polychlorinated dibenzo‐p‐dioxins (PCDDs) are hypothesized to exert their toxic effects in wildlife and humans via endocrine disruption. However, very scanty information is available on the underlying molecular interactions that trigger this disruption. In this study, molecular docking simulation was used to predict the susceptibility of 12 nuclear receptors to disruption via PCDD bindings.

In recent years, to increase growth rate and prevent infectious diseases, an excessive use of antibiotics in livestock breeding processes has resulted in the presence of antibiotic residues in animal foods. In this experiment, a new kind of electrochemical sensor is prepared based on magnetic mesoporous hollow carbon microspheres (MHM) as a penicillinase (Pen X) adsorption carrier to rapidly detect penicillin sodium (Pen G), named Pen X/MHM/MGCE.

Larvae of Hermetia illucens, commonly known as black soldier fly, efficiently convert organic waste into nutrient-rich supplements for different applications. Here we performed a preliminary experiment to investigate the dynamics of the H. illucens gut microbiota and changes in the composition of the bacterial community in the residue of the larval feed during rearing.

High levels of p‐Coumaric acid was first isolated and identified from Spirulina. Inhibitory kinetics and mechanism of p‐Coumaric acid on two enzymes were studied. Molecular modeling revealed the Spirulina p‐Coumaric acid binding mode. Abstract Spirulina species are edible with high nutritional as well as potential therapeutic values.

Overwhelming empirical evidence has highlighted the contribution of indiscriminate antibiotic usage (ABU) in food animals to the overall burden of antibiotic resistance (ABR) in humans, thus making antibiotic use the main selective pressure driving antibiotic resistance. The social and behavioral perspective on antibiotic use and resistance in poultry is limited.

Author(s): Luca Maria Chiesa, Lucia DeCastelli, Maria Nobile, Francesca Martucci, Giacomo Mosconi, Mauro Fontana, Marta Castrica, Francesco Arioli, Sara Panseri

The development of sustainable agriculture and the increasing antibiotic resistance of human pathogens call for novel antimicrobial compounds. Here, we describe the extraction and characterization of a class of cationic circular lipopeptides, for which we propose the name relacidines, from the soil bacterium Brevibacillus laterosporus MG64. Relacidines are composed of a fatty acid side chain (4‐methylhexanoic acid) and 13 amino acid residues.

Misuse of antibiotics in veterinary medicine has the potential to generate residues in animal derived products, which could contributing to the development of an important health risk either through the exposu...

ABSTRACT

ABSTRACT

The Pseudomonas aeruginosa type III secretion system (T3SS) needle comprised of multiple PscF subunits is essential for the translocation of effector toxins into human cells, facilitating the establishment and dissemination of infection. Mutations in the pscF gene provide resistance to the phenoxyacetamide (PhA) series of T3SS inhibitory chemical probes.

Author(s): Julieta Griboff, Juan Cruz Carrizo, Rocío Inés Bonansea, María Eugenia Valdés, Daniel Alberto Wunderlin, María Valeria Amé

Rifampin is the first-line antituberculosis drug, with Mycobacterium tuberculosis RNA polymerase as the molecular target. Unfortunately, M. tuberculosis strains that are resistant to rifampin have been identified in clinical settings, which limits its therapeutic effects. In clinical isolates, S531L and D516V (in Escherichia coli) are two common mutated codons in the gene rpoB, corresponding to S456L and D441V in M. tuberculosis.

Ceftazidime-avibactam and cefiderocol are two of the latest generation β-lactam agents that possess expanded activity against highly drug-resistant bacteria, including carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales. Here, we show that structural changes in AmpC β-lactamases can confer reduced susceptibility to both agents. A multidrug-resistant Enterobacter cloacae clinical strain (Ent385) was found to be resistant to ceftazidime-avibactam and cefiderocol without prior exposure to either agent.

An analytical program for multiclass, multiresidue residue analysis to qualitatively and quantitatively determine veterinary drug compounds in game meats by LC-MS/MS has been developed and validated.