Research Publications (Food Safety)

Journal of Applied Toxicology, EarlyView. Aflatoxin is a secondary metabolite secreted by Aspergillus flavus, parasitic Aspergillus, and other fungi through the polyketone pathway, and it can be detected in many foods. Aflatoxin has strong toxicity and carcinogenicity, and many studies have shown that aflatoxin is highly associated with liver cancer.

by Niti Chuchird, Tirawat Rairat, Arunothai Keetanon, Putsucha Phansawat, Chi-Chung Chou, Joy Campbell

Author(s): Francesca Maggio, Chiara Rossi, Clemencia Chaves-Lópe, Luca Valbonetti, Gianfranco Desideri, Antonello Paparella, Annalisa Serio

Author(s): Ting Nie, Fanqiang Meng, Fengxia Lu, Jing Sun, Xiaomei Bie, Zhaoxin Lu, Yingjian Lu Salmcide-p1 is an enzybiotic derived from Salmonella bacteriophage fmb-p1 with broad-spectrum antibacterial activity against Gram-negative bacteria. This study found that Salmcide-p1 completely destroyed the structural integrity of Salmonella Typhimurium within 15 min, causing the leakage of intracellular nucleic acids, proteins, K+, and Ca2+, ultimately inducing cell apoptosis and necrosis.

Author(s): Christina Rehagel, Ömer Akineden, Rolf Geisen, Benedikt Cramer, Madeleine Plötz, Ewald Usleber

Author(s): David Mahoney, Justin Falardeau, Patricia Hingston, Cora Chmielowska, Laura M. Carroll, Martin Wiedmann, Sung Sik Jang, Siyun Wang

Author(s): Chen Su, Yusong Lu, Jinbao Li, Yuxuan Wang, Luqing Pan, Mengyu Zhang

Author(s): Tao Han, Mengyuan Sun, Jinjin Zhao, Chunying Dai, Yang Li, Peng Zhang, Dongmei Lang, Junguo Zhou, Xinzheng Li, Shidong Ge

Author(s): Zhongchuang Liu, Khanh-Quang Tran

Author(s): Wei Wei, Hua Peng, Yunhe Xie, Xin Wang, Rui Huang, Haoyu Chen, Xionghui Ji

Author(s): Amrit Pal, Montana R. Riggs, Andrea Urrutia, Rachel Osborne, Ally Jackson, Matthew A. Bailey, Kenneth S. Macklin, Stuart B. Price, Richard Jeff Buhr, Dianna V. Bourassa The presence of Salmonella in air of poultry houses has been previously confirmed. Therefore, it is important to investigate the entry of Salmonella into broilers through air.

A series of novel steroidal derivatives with a substituted 1,3,4-oxadiazole structure was designed and synthesized, and the target compounds were evaluated for their insecticidal activity against five aphid species. Most of the tested compounds exhibited potent insecticidal activity against Eriosoma lanigerum (Hausmann), Myzus persicae, and Aphis citricola. Compounds 20g and 24g displayed the highest activity against E. lanigerum, showing LC50 values of 27.6 and 30.4 μg/mL, respectively.

Aflatoxins (AFs) are secondary metabolites that represent serious threats to human and animal health. They are mainly produced by strains of the saprophytic fungus Aspergillus flavus, which are abundantly distributed across agricultural commodities.

Climate change will increase the co-occurrence of Fusarium verticillioides and Aspergillus flavus, along with their mycotoxins, in European maize. In this study, the expression profiles of two pathogenesis-related (PR) genes and four mycotoxin biosynthetic genes, FUM1 and FUM13, fumonisin pathway, and aflR and aflD, aflatoxin pathway, as well as mycotoxin production, were examined in kernels and in artificial medium after a single inoculation with F. verticillioides or A.

Antitoxin, the only licensed drug therapy for botulism, neutralizes circulating botulinum neurotoxin (BoNT). However, antitoxin is no longer effective when a critical amount of BoNT has already entered its target nerve cells. The outcome is a chronic phase of botulism that is characterized by prolonged paralysis.

In response to new stringent regulations in Canada regarding the use of antibiotics in animal production, many farms have implemented practices to produce animals that are raised without antibiotics (RWA) from birth to slaughter. This study aims to assess the impact of RWA production practices on reducing the actual total on-farm use of antibiotics, the occurrence of pathogens, and the prevalence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

The three-armed cluster-randomized trial ARena (sustainable reduction of antibiotic-induced antimicrobial resistance) aimed to foster appropriate antibiotic use and reduce overprescribing in German ambulatory care to counter antibiotic resistance. Multi-faceted interventions targeted primary care physicians, teams and patients. This study examined the effectiveness of the implementation program. ARena was conducted in 14 primary care networks with 196 practices.

Antibiotics are frequently used for treating urinary tract infections (UTI) in dogs and cats. UTI often requires time-consuming and expensive antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST). Alternatively, clinicians can employ Flexicult Vet, an affordable chromogenic agar with added antibiotics for in-clinic AST.

The aim of this study was to assess the virulence, antimicrobial resistance and biofilm production of Escherichia coli strains isolated from healthy broiler chickens in Western Algeria. E. coli strains (n = 18) were identified by matrix-assisted laser desorption–ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Susceptibility to 10 antibiotics was determined by standard methods. Virulence and extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) genes were detected by PCR.

Salmonella continues to be a major food and public health burden worldwide that can threaten human health via eating contaminated meats, particularly those originating from chicken. In this study, the antimicrobial resistance profiles, epidemiological characteristics of resistance genes, and pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE-XbaI) typing of 120 non-Pullorum/Gallinarum Salmonella isolates recovered from chicken embryos in Henan province were determined.

The antimicrobial resistance is a topic of global interest in the treatment of wound infections. The goal of this retrospective study was both the identification of the microorganisms responsible for wound infections and the determination of their drug susceptibility pattern. The study was performed from 2017 to 2019 and included 239 patients.

Gram-negative pathogens represent an urgent threat due to their intrinsic and acquired antibiotic resistance. Many recent drug candidates display prominent antimicrobial activity against Gram-positive bacteria being inefficient against Gram-negative pathogens. Ultrahigh-throughput, microfluidics-based screening techniques represent a new paradigm for deep profiling of antibacterial activity and antibiotic discovery.

Escherichia coli is a common bacterium in the intestines of animals, and it is also the major important cause of toxic mastitis, which is an acute or peracute disease that causes a higher incidence of death and culling of cattle. The purpose of this study was to investigate E. coli strains isolated from the raw milk of dairy cattle in Northern China, and the antibacterial susceptibility of these strains and essential virulence genes.

Quorum sensing (QS) and biofilm formation inhibition activity of esculetin on Aeromonas hydrophila SHAe 115 were evaluated. Exposure to esculetin at 25, 50, and 100μg/ml significantly inhibited the production of protease and hemolysin, the formation of biofilms and attenuated the swarming motility of A. hydrophila SHAe 115. Biofilm forming inhibition was also observed through confocal laser scanning microscopy and scanning electron microscope.

Background
The Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) represented a great risk to public health. In this study, 60 STEC strains recovered from broiler and duck fecal samples, cow’s milk, cattle beef, human urine, and ear discharge were screened for 12 virulence genes, phenotypic and genotypic antimicrobial resistance, and multiple-locus variable-number tandem-repeat analysis (MLVA).