Research Publications (Food Safety)

Food-borne outbreak investigation currently relies on the time-consuming and challenging bacterial isolation from food, to be able to link food-derived strains to more easily obtained isolates from infected people. When no food isolate can be obtained, the source of the outbreak cannot be unambiguously determined.

As the representative multidrug-resistant pathogen, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia has multiple intrinsic and acquired resistances, including carbapenem resistance.

Due to the strict control on bisphenol A (BPA) in many countries, bisphenol analogues (BPs) are being widely used as alternative materials to manufacture epoxy resins and polycarbonate plastics, resulting in their occurrence in sewage treatment plants (STPs). In this study, the occurrence and distribution of 7 BPs in a large-scale STP in Beijing China was investigated.

Aquaculture Nutrition, EarlyView. In the present study, Indian shrimp, Penaeus indicus, were fed on diets supplemented with basil (Ocimum basilicum) oil (BO) to observe the growth performance, antioxidant and innate immune responses, and the resistance against Vibrio parahaemolyticus infection. The animals (5.0–5.5 g) were fed on diets supplemented with 0.0 (control), 1.0, 2.5 and 5 g BO/kg diet over 90 days. After the feeding trial, animals were intramuscularly injected by V.

Journal of Applied Microbiology, EarlyView. Aims

Resistance to Fusarium head blight (FHB) of spelt wheat was investigated in field trials carried out at three European locations between 2016 and 2018. Resistance was assessed after artificial inoculation by visual scoring of symptoms and the determination of the contamination of grains and glumes with the mycotoxin deoxynivalenol (DON). It was found that typical spelt traits such as tall plant height, lax spikes, and tough glumes play a role as passive resistance factors.

Salmonella enterica remains one of the leading causes of foodborne bacterial disease. Retail meat is a major source of human salmonellosis. However, comparative genomic analyses of S. enterica isolates from retail meat from different sources in China are lacking. A total of 341 S. enterica strains were isolated from retail meat in sixteen districts of Beijing, China, at three different time points (January 1st, May 1st, and October 1st) in 2017.

Streptomyces species are the most important sources of antibacterial, antifungal, and phytotoxic metabolites. In this study, cycloheximide (CH) and acetoxycycloheximide (ACH) were isolated from the fermentation broth of Streptomyces sp. JCK-6092. The antifungal and phytotoxic activities of the two compounds (CH and ACH) and a cycloheximide derivative, hydroxycycloheximide (HCH), were compared.

Disbalancing envelope stress responses was investigated as a strategy for sensitization of Escherichia coli to antimicrobial agents. Seventeen isogenic strains were selected from the KEIO collection with deletions in genes corresponding to the σE, Cpx, Rcs, Bae, and Psp responses. Antimicrobial activity against 20 drugs with different targets was evaluated by disk diffusion and gradient strip tests.

The recurring outbreak of Zika virus (ZIKV) worldwide makes an emergent demand for novel, safe and efficacious anti-ZIKV agents. ZIKV non-structural protein 5 (NS5) methyltransferase (MTase), which is essential for viral replication, is regarded as a potential drug target. In our study, a luminescence-based methyltransferase assay was used to establish the ZIKV NS5 MTase inhibitor screening model.

by Emily Smith, Elizabeth Miller, Jeannette Munoz Aguayo, Cristian Flores Figueroa, Jill Nezworski, Marissa Studniski, Ben Wileman, Timothy Johnson

by Clifford G. Clark, Ashley K. Kearney, Lorelee Tschetter, James Robertson, Frank Pollari, Stephen Parker, Gitanjali Arya, Kim Ziebell, Roger Johnson, John Nash, Celine Nadon

by Goran Bozinovic, Damian Shea, Zuying Feng, David Hinton, Tim Sit, Marjorie F. Oleksiak

by Andrew Kanach, Theresa Bottorff, Min Zhao, Jun Wang, George T. C. Chiu, Bruce Applegate

Author(s): Lisa M. Prince, M. Diana Neely, Emily B. Warren, Morgan G. Thomas, Madeline R. Henley, Kiara K. Smith, Michael Aschner, Aaron B. Bowman

Author(s): Mehdi Jaferi, Aliasghar Mozaffari, Maziar Jajarmi, Masoud Imani, Mohammad Khalili

Author(s): Lanhua Yi, Ping Zeng, Jun Liu, Kwok-Yin Wong, Edward Wai-Chi Chan, Yanbing Lin, Kin-Fai Chan, Sheng Chen

Author(s): Jing Jin, Karsten Beekmann, Einar Ringø, Ivonne M.C.M. Rietjens, Fuguo Xing

Author(s): Raizza Zorman Marques, Natalia Wistuba, Júlio César Moreira Brito, Vinícius Bernardoni, Daiane Cristina Rocha, Marcelo Pedrosa Gomes

A simple, rapid, and efficient liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) method, operated in electrospray ionization (ESI) and quadrupole linear ion trap modes, has been developed for the identification and structural characterization of zearalenone (ZEN) in corn oil. Samples (5 g) were extracted with acetonitrile/water (80:20, v/v).

Human noroviruses (HuNoV) are the dominant cause of viral gastroenteritis in all age groups worldwide. In this study, we investigated the effects of pomegranate peel extract (PPE) on the reduction of HuNoV in different food models, on surfaces of fresh produce (green onion and cherry tomato), in low-fat milk, and simulated gastrointestinal fluids.

Staphylococcus aureus is one of the major causes of bloodstream infections. The aim of our study was to characterize methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolates from blood of patients hospitalized in the Czech Republic between 2016 and 2018. All MRSA strains were tested for antibiotic susceptibility, analyzed by spa typing and clustered using a Based Upon Repeat Pattern (BURP) algorithm.

Clostridium perfringens is a major human pathogen that causes gastroenteritis via enterotoxin production and has the ability to form spores and biofilms for environmental persistence and disease transmission. This study aimed to compare the disinfectant and environmental resistance properties of C. perfringens vegetative cells and spores in planktonic and sessile conditions, and to examine the nucleotide polymorphisms and transcription under sessile conditions in C.

Beauvericin (BEA) and deoxynivalenol are toxins produced by Fusarium species that can contaminate food and feed. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of these mycotoxins on the maturation of oocytes from gilts and sows. Furthermore, the antioxidant profiles in the oocytes’ environment were assessed. Cumulus-oocyte-complexes (COCs) from gilts and sows were exposed to beauvericin (BEA) or deoxynivalenol (DON) and matured in vitro.

Journal of Food Processing and Preservation, Accepted Article. This study aimed to investigate the mechanisms activated by melatonin treatment for attenuating Aspergillus decay, suppressing aflatoxin B1 (AB1) accumulation, and preserving nutritional quality in fresh pistachio fruits during storage at 25 ºC for 18 days. At 6‐day intervals, samples from each of three replications were selected, and subjected to biochemical analysis.