Research Publications (Food Safety)

The challenge to develop an animal model system to replicate human norovirus (HuNoV) has hampered the study of its pathogenesis and therapeutic intervention. In this study, we replicated HuNoV GII.4 and expressed genes in virus-infected zebrafish. Three doses of inoculation successfully replicated the virus.

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.

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.

by Hamza Hamad Matimba, Agricola Joachim, Mucho Michael Mizinduko, Irene Anthony Maseke, Salum Kassim Nyanga, Maria Ezekiely Kelly, Ali Said Nyanga, Janneth Maridadi Mghamba, Mtebe Venance Majigo, Ahmed Abade Mohamed Background Cholera continues to cause morbidity and mortality in developing countries, including Tanzania. Since August 2015, Tanzania Mainland has experienced cholera outbreaks affecting 26 regions and a 1.6% case fatality rate.

Patulin, a type of mycotoxin, presents a serious threat to human and animal health. Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) have been shown to effectively detoxify patulin and have strong application prospects in this regard.

Cross-contamination of Listeria monocytogenes from raw to ready-to-eat (RTE) foods has caused a number of foodborne outbreaks. This study used the quantitative exposure assessment to analyze the transfer risk of L.

Chronic hepatitis B (CHB) infection results in multiple clinical phenotypes of varying severity. One of the critical gaps in CHB management is the lack of a genetic-based tool to aid existing hepatocellular carcinoma and cirrhosis risk stratification models for patients with active CHB. Such individual predictive models for CHB are plagued by an inherent limitation of discriminatory power that clearly indicates the need for their improvement.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a common malignancy in the world, with high mortality and poor prognosis. Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is one of the key factors implicated in the occurrence of HCC. Increasing evidence suggests that miRNAs play important roles in the development and metastasis of HBV-associated HCC (HBV-HCC).

Salmonella enterica subspecies enterica serovar Typhimurium (S. Typhimurium) definitive phage type 104 (DT104), S.

In this work, the impact of terroir, cultivar, seasonality, and farming systems on functional traits of tomato was hierarchically investigated. Untargeted metabolomics, antioxidant capacity, colorimetric assays, and enzyme inhibition were determined.

Milk is susceptible to aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) contamination when dairy cattle consume feed contaminated with aflatoxins and is considered as a public health concern. This pilot study assessed the prevalence and amount of total aflatoxin contamination in commercially available dairy feed and the corresponding AFM1 contamination in raw milk from samples collected at farms using local, commercially available dairy feed across Rwanda’s five provinces.

Large quantities of the antibiotic florfenicol are used in animal farming and aquaculture, contaminating the ecosystem with antibiotic residues and promoting antimicrobial resistance, ultimately leading to untreatable multidrug-resistant pathogens. Florfenicol-resistant bacteria often activate export mechanisms that result in resistance to various structurally unrelated antibiotics.

The antimicrobial activity of several essential oils (EOs) and their related microemulsions (MEs) was investigated. EOs were obtained from Cannabis sativa L. cv CS (C. sativa), Carum carvi L. (C. carvi), Crithmum maritimum L. (C. maritimum), Cuminum cyminum L. (C. cyminum), x Cupressocyparis leylandii A.B. Jacks & Dallim. (C. leylandii), Cupressus arizonica Greene (C. arizonica), Ferula assa-foetida L. (F. assa-foetida)., Ferula gummosa Boiss. (F.

Gram-positive bacteria do not produce lipopolysaccharide as a cell wall component. As such, the polymyxin class of antibiotics, which exert bactericidal activity against Gram-negative pathogens, are ineffective against Gram-positive bacteria. The safe-for-human-use hydroxyquinoline analog ionophore PBT2 has been previously shown to break polymyxin resistance in Gram-negative bacteria, independent of the lipopolysaccharide modification pathways that confer polymyxin resistance.

Molecular Microbiology, Accepted Article. The behaviours of infectious bacteria are commonly studied in bulk. This is effective to define general properties of a given isolate, but insufficient to resolve subpopulations and unique single-microbe behaviours within the bacterial pool.

Journal of Fish Diseases, EarlyView. Enterocytozoon hepatopenaei (EHP) and Vibrio parahaemolyticus acute hepatopancreatic necrosis disease (VPAHPND) are two of the diseases that have frequently infected farmed shrimp in recent years, causing great economic losses to the shrimp industry worldwide.

Synthetic and naturally occurring siderophores and their conjugates provide access to the bacterial cytoplasm via active membrane transport. Previously, we displaced iron with the radioactive isotope 67Ga to quantify and track in vitro and in vivo uptake and distribution of siderophore Trojan Horse antibiotic conjugates. Here, we introduce a multi-isotope tagging strategy to individually elucidate the fate of metal cargo and the ligand construct with radioisotopes 67Ga and 124I.

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.

by Yakhya Dieye, Dawn M. Hull, Abdoul Aziz Wane, Lyndy Harden, Cheikh Fall, Bissoume Sambe-Ba, Abdoulaye Seck, Paula J. Fedorka-Cray, Siddhartha Thakur Salmonella enterica is the most common foodborne pathogen worldwide. It causes two types of diseases, a self-limiting gastroenteritis and an invasive, more threatening, infection. Salmonella gastroenteritis is caused by several serotypes and is common worldwide.

Campylobacter cross-contamination of Danish broiler flocks at slaughterhouses was investigated using data from two national surveillance components and from ad-hoc sampling. The animal level (AL) and food safety (FS) components from 2018 were compared. The AL component contained results of PCR on pools of cloacal swabs from 3,012 flocks processed at two Danish slaughterhouses (S1-S2), while the FS component regarded culture testing of leg skins from 999/3,012 flocks.

Symbiotic interactions play a crucial role in the phosphate (Pi) nutrient status of the host plant and offer resilience during biotic and abiotic stresses. Despite a competitive behavior of arsenic (AsV) with Pi, Serendipita indica association promotes plant growth by reducing arsenic bioavailability in the rhizosphere. Reduced arsenic availability is due to the adsorption, accumulation, and precipitation of arsenic in the fungus.

In this work, carbonized cellulose nanoparticles have been prepared easily by heating filter paper in a mixture of sulfuric acid and water.

Oilseed crops are greatly extended all over the world. Their high fat content can interfere during pesticide multiresidue analysis through liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). This work aimed at overcoming this issue by developing and validating two QuEChERS-based methods for LC-MS/MS determination of 42 pesticides in two fatty food matrices: olives and sunflower seeds.

Thermal inactivation of pathogenic and spoilage organisms in low and intermediate moisture foods is of critical importance for guaranteeing microbiological safety and stability of these products. Producers tendentially reduce salt in low and intermediate moisture foods because of nutritional health considerations, but it is unclear how this affects microbial inactivation rates during pasteurization.

Cosmetics intended for human use should be free of microbes involving a potential health hazard. Different points in the cosmetic production process, from the choice of raw materials and the formulation itself to the final packaging, can be critical. The aim of this study is to present the first case of Vibrio metschnikovii isolated from cosmetics in Serbia, which caused signs of skin infection.