Research Publications (Food Safety)

Aflatoxins are toxic secondary metabolites produced by Aspergillus spp. found in staple food and feed commodities worldwide. Aflatoxins are carcinogenic, teratogenic, and mutagenic, and pose a serious threat to the health of both humans and animals. The global economy and trade are significantly affected as well. Various models and datasets related to aflatoxins in maize have been developed and used but have not yet been linked.

Introduction Black Tibetan sheep is one of the primitive sheep breeds in China that is famous for its great eating quality and nutrient value but with little attention to the relationship between feeding regimes and rumen metabolome along with its impact on the muscle metabolism and meat quality. Methods This study applies metabolomics-based analyses of muscles and 16S rDNA-based sequencing of rumen fluid to examine how feeding regimes influence the compositi

Solanum nigrum L. (S. nigrum) and microbial agents are often used for the remediation of cadmium (Cd)-contaminated soil; however, no studies to date have examined the efficacy of using various microbial agents for enhancing the remediation efficiency of Cd-contaminated soil by S. nigrum.

Clostridium botulinum is the main causative agent of botulism, a neurological disease encountered in humans as well as animals. Nine types of botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs) have been described so far. Amongst these “toxinotypes,” the A, the B and E are the most frequently encountered in humans while the C, D, C/D and D/C are mostly affecting domestic and wild birds as well as cattle. In France for instance, many cases and outbreaks are reported in these animal species every year.

In recent years, hepatitis-hydropericardium syndrome (HHS) and inclusion body hepatitis (IBH) caused by serotype 4 fowl adenovirus (FAdV-4) and serotype 8b fowl adenovirus (FAdV-8b), respectively, are widely prevalent in China, causing huge economic losses to the poultry industry. Numerous studies have revealed the mechanism of the infection and pathogenesis of FAdV-4. However, little is known about the mechanism of infection with FAdV-8b.

Listeria monocytogenes (Lm) accounts for serious public health and food safety problems owing to its stress resilience and pathogenicity. Based on their regulatory involvement in global gene expression events, cold-shock domain family proteins (Csps) are crucial in expression of various stress fitness and virulence phenotypes in bacteria.

Introduction Gastrointestinal illnesses associated with the consumption of shellfish contaminated with Vibrio parahaemolyticus have a negative impact on the shellfish industry due to recalls and loss of consumer confidence in products. This bacterial pathogen is very diverse and specific sequence types (STs), ST631 and ST36, have emerged as prevalent causes of Vibrio foodborne disease outbreaks in the US, though other STs have been implicated in sporadic cases.

Proteus mirabilis is an opportunistic pathogen frequently associated with nosocomial infection and food poisoning cases. Contamination of P. mirabilis in retail meat products may be important transmission routes for human infection with P. mirabilis. In this study a total of 89 P. mirabilis strains were isolated from 347 samples in 14 food markets in China and subjected to whole-genome sequencing.

Objectives

While Livestock-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (LA-MRSA), defined as CC398, is a well-known pathogen among those working with livestock, there are indications that LA-MRSA prevalence among the general population is increasing. However, the clinical impact in urban areas remains unknown. The aim of this study was to assess the genetic epidemiology and clinical characteristics of LA-MRSA in an urban area with a limited livestock population.

Introduction Use of antimicrobial drugs (AMDs) in food producing animals has received increasing scrutiny because of concerns about antimicrobial resistance (AMR) that might affect consumers. Previously, investigations regarding AMR have focused largely on phenotypes of selected pathogens and indicator bacteria, such as Salmonella enterica or Escherichia coli. However, genes conferring AMR are known to be distributed and shared throughout microbial communities.

Among a few hundred mycotoxins, aflatoxins had always posed a major threat to the world. Apart from A. flavus, A. parasiticus, and A. nomius of Aspergillus genus, which are most toxin-producing strains, several fungal bodies including Fusarium, Penicillium, and Alternaria that can biosynthesis aflatoxins. Basically, there are four different types of aflatoxins (Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), Aflatoxin B2 (AFB2), Aflatoxin G1 (AFG1), Aflatoxin G2 (AFG2)) are produced as secondary metabolites.

In recent years, there has been an increasingly heated debate on whether Chinese dark tea is contaminated with mycotoxins and whether it poses health risks to consumers. In this study, a rapid method based on high-performance liquid chromatography was used to detect ochratoxin A (OTA) in Chinese dark tea samples from different regions of China and different years.

Food safety and health are the themes of today's society. As a class of foodborne pathogens, Salmonella enteritidis has become one of the common zoonotic pathogens. Because chemical preservatives have certain harmfulness and have been questioned, it is particularly important to find green and safe natural preservatives. The advantages of plant essential oils (EOs) are that they are green and safe, have a wide range of antibacterials, and are not easy to form drug resistance.

Biofilm-associated bacteria, especially ESKAPE pathogens (Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Enterobacter spp.), are a serious challenge worldwide. Due to the lack of discovery of novel antibiotics, in the past two decades, it has become necessary to search for new antibiotics or to study synergy with the existing antibiotics so as to counter life-threatening infections.

This study aimed to investigate the effects of different feeding patterns on meat quality, gut microbiota and its metabolites of Tibetan pigs. Tibetan pigs with similar body weight were fed the high energy diets (HEP, 20 pigs) and the regular diets (RFP, 20 pigs), and free-ranging Tibetan pigs (FRP, 20 pigs) were selected as the reference. After 6 weeks of experiment, meat quality indexes of semitendinosus muscle (SM) and cecal microbiota were measured.

Anisakidosis is a food-borne parasitic disease (FBPD) caused by the third-stage larvae of the family Anisakidae. Therefore, it is important to develop a simple, rapid and equipment-free detection method for anisakids in fish samples or seafood since current methods are time-consuming and require complex instruments.

Introduction Staphylococcus aureus is an important pathogen that can form biofilms on food contact surfaces (FCS) in the dairy industry, posing a serious food safety, and quality concern. Biofilm is a complex system, influenced by nutritional-related factors that regulate the synthesis of the components of the biofilm matrix.

Geraniol nanoemulsions (G-NE) based on Tween 80 and medium chain triglyceride (MCT) as surfactant and co-surfactant, respectively, has been prepared by the spontaneous emulsification method. Its physical and chemical properties such as mean particle size, zeta potential, PDI, pH, viscosity, contact angle, appearance morphology, and stability (storage stability, thermal stability, centrifugal properties, acid-base stability, and freeze-thaw properties) of the droplet were analyzed.

Background Ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB) in soil are of great biological importance as they regulate the cycling of N in agroecosystems.

A wide range of protozoan pathogens either transmitted by vectors (Plasmodium, Babesia, Leishmania and Trypanosoma), by contaminated food or water (Entamoeba and Giardia), or by sexual contact (Trichomonas) invade various organs in the body and cause prominent human diseases, such as malaria, babesiosis, leishmaniasis, trypanosomiasis, diarrhea, and trichomoniasis.

Symbiotic associations, widespread in terrestrial and marine ecosystems, are of considerable ecological importance. Many tropical coral species are holobionts, formed by the obligate association between a cnidarian host and endosymbiotic dinoflagellates of the family Symbiodiniaceae. The latter are abundant on coral reefs from very shallow water down to the upper mesophotic zone (30–70 m).

Salmonella enterica is a diverse species of bacterial pathogens comprised of >2,500 serovars with variable host ranges and virulence properties. Accumulating evidence indicates that two AB5-type toxins, typhoid toxin and ArtAB toxin, contribute to the more severe virulence properties of the Salmonella strains that encode them.

Characterization of inorganic carbon (C) utilizing microorganisms from deep crystalline rocks is of major scientific interest owing to their crucial role in global carbon and other elemental cycles. In this study we investigate the microbial populations from the deep [up to 2,908 meters below surface (mbs)] granitic rocks within the Koyna seismogenic zone, reactivated (enriched) under anaerobic, high temperature (50°C), chemolithoautotrophic conditions.

Aflatoxins, produced by several Aspergillus section Flavi species in various crops, are a significant public health risk and a barrier to trade and development. In sub-Saharan Africa, maize and groundnut are particularly vulnerable to aflatoxin contamination. Aflasafe, a registered aflatoxin biocontrol product, utilizes atoxigenic A. flavus genotypes native to Nigeria to displace aflatoxin producers and mitigate aflatoxin contamination.

Quaternary ammonium compounds (QACs) are widely used as active agents in disinfectants, antiseptics, and preservatives. Despite being in use since the 1940s, there remain multiple open questions regarding their detailed mode-of-action and the mechanisms, including phenotypic heterogeneity, that can make bacteria less susceptible to QACs.