Research Publications (Food Safety)

Over the past 11 years, the Slovak National Reference Laboratory has collected a panel of 988 Listeria monocytogenes isolates in Slovakia, which were isolated from various food sectors (61%), food-processing environments (13.7%), animals with listeriosis symptoms (21.2%), and human cases (4.1%).

Coxiella burnetii is an obligate intracellular Gram-negative bacterium and the causative agent of a worldwide zoonosis known as Q fever. The pathogen invades monocytes and macrophages, replicating within acidic phagolysosomes and evading host defenses through different immune evasion strategies that are mainly associated with the structure of its lipopolysaccharide. The main transmission routes are aerosols and ingestion of fomites from infected animals.

Many bacterial species, including Vibrio cholerae (the pathogen that causes cholera), enter a physiologically viable but non-culturable (VBNC) state at low temperature or in conditions of low nutrition; this is a survival strategy to resist environmental stress. Identification, detection, and differentiation of VBNC cells and nonviable cells are essential for both microbiological study and disease surveillance/control. Enumeration of VBNC cells requires an accurate method.

Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) is a common enteric pathogen that causes diarrhoea in humans and animals. Lactobacillus rhamnosus LB1 (formerly named Lactobacillus zeae LB1) has been shown to reduce ETEC infection to Caenorhabditis elegans and Salmonella burden in pigs. This study was to evaluate the effect of L. rhamnosus LB1 on the gut health of lactating piglets that were challenged with ETEC.

Ceftazidime-avibactam (CAZ-AVI) shows promising activity against carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae (CRKP), however, CAZ-AVI resistance have emerged recently. Mutations in KPCs, porins OmpK35 and/or OmpK36, and PBPs are known to contribute to the resistance to CAZ-AVI in CRKP. To identify novel CAZ-AVI resistance mechanism, we generated 10 CAZ-AVI-resistant strains from 14 CAZ-AVI susceptible KPC-producing K.

There is urgent need for spintronics materials exhibiting a large voltage modulation effect to fulfill the great demand for high-speed, low-power-consumption information processing systems. Fcc-Co (111)-based systems are a promising option for research on the voltage effect, on account of their large perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) and high degree of freedom in structure.

by Sayran Hamad Haji, Safaa Toma Hanna Aka, Fattma A. Ali

Background

by Lidia Redondo-Bravo, Beatriz Fernandez-Martinez, Diana Gómez-Barroso, Alin Gherasim, Montserrat García-Gómez, Agustín Benito, Zaida Herrador

Introduction

by Glen J. Golden, Maryanne Opiekun, Talia Martin-Taylor, Bruce A. Kimball

by Matthieu Faron, Pierre Blanchard, Laureen Ribassin-Majed, Jean-Pierre Pignon, Stefan Michiels, Gwénaël Le Teuff

Introduction

Author(s): Wattana Pelyuntha, Kitiya Vongkamjan Salmonella contaminated in poultry meat remains an important food safety issue as this pathogen leads to a serious foodborne illness worldwide. A number of poultry meat products have often been recalled or rejected due to Salmonella contamination leading to high economic losses each year.

Author(s): Anna Onopiuk, Klaudia Kołodziejczak, Monika Marcinkowska-Lesiak, Andrzej Poltorak

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a global public health problem with about 257 million chronically infected people and over 887000 deaths annually. In this study, 32 whole HBV genomes of various genotypes were amplified from clinical isolates to create transfection clones. The clones were sequenced, and their biological properties characterized by transfecting linear HBV clones into HepG2 cells.

  Campylobacter jejuni   strains that produce sialylated lipooligosaccharides (LOS) can cause the immune-mediated disease Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS).

Modeling ciguatoxin (CTX) trophic transfer in marine food webs has significant implications for the management of ciguatera poisoning, a circumtropical disease caused by human consumption of CTX-contaminated seafood. Current models associated with CP risk rely on modeling abundance/presence of CTX-producing epi-benthic dinoflagellates, e.g., Gambierdiscus spp., and are based on studies showing that toxin production is site specific and occurs in pulses driven by environmental factors.

Halophiles, the salt-loving organisms, have been investigated for at least a hundred years. They are found in all three domains of life, namely Archaea, Bacteria, and Eukarya, and occur in saline and hypersaline environments worldwide. They are already a valuable source of various biomolecules for biotechnological, pharmaceutical, cosmetological and industrial applications.

Our previous study revealed that Salmonella enterica serovar Schwarzengrund-contaminated areas of broiler chickens have expanded from West Japan to East Japan. The present study investigated the antimicrobial resistance and molecular characteristics of 124 S. Schwarzengrund isolates obtained from chicken meat produced in East and West Japan from 2008 to 2019.

The present study aimed to characterize the extended-spectrum β-lactamases and plasmid-mediated AmpC β-lactamases (ESBL/PMAβ) among Escherichia coli producers isolated from beef, pork, and poultry meat collected at retail, in Portugal. A total of 638 meat samples were collected and inoculated on selective medium for the search of E. coli resistant to 3rd generation cephalosporins.

Journal of Food Processing and Preservation, Accepted Article. Monascus pigments (MPs) possess a range of biological activities, such as antimicrobial and potential anti-obesity activities. A lot of Monascus strains are used to produce MPs. In this study, the effect of radiation on pigment production and morphological changes of the fungus was investigated. The spore suspensions were exposed to different doses of Gamma by a Co-60 –irradiator and then cultured on potato dextrose agar.

Journal of Food Processing and Preservation, Accepted Article. Fluid bed drying with temperatures of 70-130 °C, together with a coating system based on a zinc oxide nanoparticle (n-ZnO) solution, were investigated for control of fungal growth in paddy before storage. A mathematical model to find suitable conditions for this process was developed.

Journal of Basic Microbiology, EarlyView. Sustainable agriculture and humanity's civilization rest upon valuable natural resources such as earth and water, which have gone maximal exploitation and have been deteriorated by human activities. Heavy metals are natural components and one of the major pollutants of our environment, with a high atomic number and five times the density of water.

Journal of Basic Microbiology, EarlyView. Microalgae have been publicized for their diversified dominance responsiveness and bioaccumulation potential toward pollutants in an ecosystem. Also, algal's incredible capability as biocatalysts in environmental appliances has been well elucidated owing to their robustness and simple nutritional demand.

Algae are photosynthetic eukaryotic (micro-)organisms, lacking roots, leaves, and other organs that are typical for land plants. They live in freshwater, marine, or terrestrial habitats. Together with the cyanobacteria they contribute to about half of global carbon fixation. As primary producers, they are at the basis of many food webs and they are involved in biogeochemical processes.

Genus Ocimum of Labiatae is well known in all traditional medicinal systems like Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha, and Homeopathy. The pharmaceutical activities of different species of Ocimum attributed to all plant parts. Roots are the most significant vital organ of the plant, as they absorb water and nutrients from soil and transport to aerial parts of the plants.

Hepatitis E Virus (HEV) causes viral hepatitis in humans worldwide, while a subset of HEV species, avian HEV, causes hepatitis-splenomegaly syndrome in chickens. To date, there are few reports on the host proteins interacting with HEV and being involved in viral infection. Previous pull-down assay combining mass spectrometry indicated that cell division control protein 42 (CDC42), a member belonging to the Rho GTPase family, was pulled down by avian HEV capsid protein.