scholarly journals Foodborne Toxigenic Agents Investigated in Central Italy: An Overview of a Three-Year Experience (2018–2020)

Toxins ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 40
Author(s):  
Valeria Russini ◽  
Carlo Corradini ◽  
Maria Laura De Marchis ◽  
Tatiana Bogdanova ◽  
Sarah Lovari ◽  
...  

Foodborne diseases (FBDs) represent a worldwide public health issue, given their spreadability and the difficulty of tracing the sources of contamination. This report summarises the incidence of foodborne pathogens and toxins found in food, environmental and clinical samples collected in relation to diagnosed or suspected FBD cases and submitted between 2018 and 2020 to the Food Microbiology Unit of the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Lazio e della Toscana (IZSLT). Data collected from 70 FBD investigations were analysed: 24.3% of them started with an FBD diagnosis, whereas a further 41.4% involved clinical diagnoses based on general symptomatology. In total, 5.6% of the 340 food samples analysed were positive for the presence of a bacterial pathogen, its toxins or both. Among the positive samples, more than half involved meat-derived products. Our data reveal the probable impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the number of FBD investigations conducted. In spite of the serious impact of FBDs on human health and the economy, the investigation of many foodborne outbreaks fails to identify the source of infection. This indicates a need for the competent authorities to continue to develop and implement a more fully integrated health network.

2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Rohde ◽  
Jens Andre Hammerl ◽  
Bernd Appel ◽  
Ralf Dieckmann ◽  
Sascha Al Dahouk

Efficient preparation of food samples, comprising sampling and homogenization, for microbiological testing is an essential, yet largely neglected, component of foodstuff control.Salmonella entericaspiked chicken breasts were used as a surface contamination model whereas salami and meat paste acted as models of inner-matrix contamination. A systematic comparison of different homogenization approaches, namely, stomaching, sonication, and milling by FastPrep-24 or SpeedMill, revealed that for surface contamination a broad range of sample pretreatment steps is applicable and loss of culturability due to the homogenization procedure is marginal. In contrast, for inner-matrix contamination long treatments up to 8 min are required and only FastPrep-24 as a large-volume milling device produced consistently good recovery rates. In addition, sampling of different regions of the spiked sausages showed that pathogens are not necessarily homogenously distributed throughout the entire matrix. Instead, in meat paste the core region contained considerably more pathogens compared to the rim, whereas in the salamis the distribution was more even with an increased concentration within the intermediate region of the sausages. Our results indicate that sampling and homogenization as integral parts of food microbiology and monitoring deserve more attention to further improve food safety.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed O. El-Gendy ◽  
Dag A. Brede ◽  
Tamer M. Essam ◽  
Magdy A. Amin ◽  
Shaban H. Ahmed ◽  
...  

AbstractNosocomial infections caused by enterococci are an ongoing global threat. Thus, finding therapeutic agents for the treatment of such infections are crucial. Some Enterococcus faecalis strains are able to produce antimicrobial peptides called bacteriocins. We analyzed 65 E. faecalis isolates from 43 food samples and 22 clinical samples in Egypt for 17 common bacteriocin-encoding genes of Enterococcus spp. These genes were absent in 11 isolates that showed antimicrobial activity putatively due to bacteriocins (three from food, including isolate OS13, and eight from clinical isolates). The food-isolated E. faecalis OS13 produced bacteriocin-like inhibitory substances (BLIS) named enterocin OS13, which comprised two peptides (enterocin OS13α OS13β) that inhibited the growth of antibiotic-resistant nosocomial E. faecalis and E. faecium isolates. The molecular weights of enterocin OS13α and OS13β were determined as 8079 Da and 7859 Da, respectively, and both were heat-labile. Enterocin OS13α was sensitive to proteinase K, while enterocin OS13β was resistant. Characterization of E. faecalis OS13 isolate revealed that it belonged to sequence type 116. It was non-hemolytic, bile salt hydrolase-negative, gelatinase-positive, and sensitive to ampicillin, penicillin, vancomycin, erythromycin, kanamycin, and gentamicin. In conclusion, BLIS as enterocin OS13α and OS13β represent antimicrobial agents with activities against antibiotic-resistant enterococcal isolates.


2015 ◽  
Vol 78 (8) ◽  
pp. 1554-1559 ◽  
Author(s):  
RONG WANG ◽  
NORASAK KALCHAYANAND ◽  
JAMES L. BONO

Bacterial biofilms are one of the potential sources of cross-contamination in food processing environments. Shiga toxin–producing Escherichia coli (STEC) O157:H7 and O111:H8 are important foodborne pathogens capable of forming biofilms, and the coexistence of these two STEC serotypes has been detected in various food samples and in multiple commercial meat plants throughout the United States. Here, we investigated how the coexistence of these two STEC serotypes and their sequence of colonization could affect bacterial growth competition and mixed biofilm development. Our data showed that E. coli O157:H7 strains were able to maintain a higher cell percentage in mixed biofilms with the co-inoculated O111:H8 companion strains, even though the results of planktonic growth competition were strain dependent. On solid surfaces with preexisting biofilms, the sequence of colonization played a critical role in determining the composition of the mixed biofilms because early stage precolonization significantly affected the competition results between the E. coli O157:H7 and O111:H8 strains. The precolonizer of either serotype was able to outgrow the other serotype in both planktonic and biofilm phases. The competitive interactions among the various STEC serotypes would determine the composition and structure of the mixed biofilms as well as their potential risks to food safety and public health, which is largely influenced by the dominant strains in the mixtures. Thus, the analysis of mixed biofilms under various conditions would be of importance to determine the nature of mixed biofilms composed of multiple microorganisms and to help implement the most effective disinfection operations accordingly.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Attien ◽  
Haziz Sina ◽  
Wardi Moussaoui ◽  
Gaëlle Zimmermann-Meisse ◽  
Thomas Dadié ◽  
...  

The aim of our study was to investigate the microbial quality of meat products and on some clinical samples in Abidjan focused onStaphylococcusgenus and the toxin production profile ofStaphylococcus aureus(S. aureus) isolated. Bacteria were collected from 240 samples of three meat products sold in Abidjan and 180 samples issued from clinical infections. The strains were identified by both microbiological and MALDI-TOF-MS methods. The susceptibility to antibiotics was determined by the disc diffusion method. The production of Panton-Valentine Leukocidin, LukE/D, and epidermolysins was screened using radial gel immunodiffusion. The production of staphylococcal enterotoxins and TSST-1 was screened by a Bio-Plex Assay. We observed that 96/240 of meat samples and 32/180 of clinical samples were contaminated byStaphylococcus. Eleven species were isolated from meats and 4 from clinical samples. Forty-twoS. aureusstrains were isolated from ours samples. Variability of resistance was observed for most of the tested antibiotics but none of the strains displays a resistance to imipenem and quinolones. We observed that 89% of clinicalS. aureuswere resistant to methicillin against 58% for those issued from meat products. AllS. aureusisolates issued from meat products produce epidermolysins whereas none of the clinical strains produced these toxins. The enterotoxins were variably produced by both clinical and meat product samples.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (8) ◽  
pp. e0255172
Author(s):  
Yuuki Bamba ◽  
Kei Nagano ◽  
Hiroshi Moro ◽  
Hideyuki Ogata ◽  
Mariko Hakamata ◽  
...  

Background Each of the currently available (1→3)-β-D-glucan (BDG) measurement kits follows a different measurement method and cut-off value. Comparisons of diagnostic performance for invasive fungal infections (IFIs) are desirable. Additionally, ecological considerations are becoming increasingly important in the development of new measurement kits. Methods The plasma BDG levels in clinical samples were measured using the following currently available kits: the Fungitec G test MKII, the Fungitec G test ES, Fungitell, the β-Glucan test Wako, and the newly developed Wako kit (Wako-Eu). Wako-Eu uses a pre-treatment solution that conforms to European regulations for the registration, evaluation, authorisation, and restriction of chemicals. The values obtained for the samples using each kit were studied and compared. Results Of the 165 patients evaluated, 12 had IFIs, including pneumocystis pneumonia, aspergillosis, and candidiasis. BDG values obtained using the kits were moderately correlated with each other. Clinical diagnoses of the evaluated cases indicated that 21 false positives were diagnosed by at least one kit. The sensitivity of the Fungitell kit was relatively low, but those of the other four were over 90%. The specificity was above 90% for all kits. For positive predictive value, the Wako and the Wako-Eu methods were superior to the others owing to fewer false positive results. Conclusions The newly developed Wako-Eu method, which considers ecological concerns, shows diagnostic performance equivalent to that of its predecessor. To improve the diagnostic accuracy of IFIs, it is necessary to interpret the results carefully, giving due consideration to the characteristics of each measurement kit.


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Naeimeh Sadat Hashemi ◽  
Meysam Mojiri ◽  
Parivash Yazdani Kachouyi ◽  
Shiva Eskandari ◽  
Mehrsa Mohammadian ◽  
...  

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is one of the most important opportunistic pathogens responsible for various types of hospital infections. High prevalence of antibiotic resistance in P. aeruginosa strains of human clinical samples cause more severe diseases for a longer period of time. The current research was done in order to study the distribution of blaIMP-1 gene among the imipenem-resistant P. aeruginosa strains isolated from burn and urinary tract infections of hospitalized patients. Two-hundred and forty-three P. aeruginosa isolates recovered from the cases of burn and urinary tract infections of inpatients and outpatients were analysis for antibiotic resistance pattern using the disk diffusion method. Then, imipenem-resistant isolates were further analyzed for distribution of blaIMP-1 gene using the PCR. Of 243 P. aeruginosa isolates, 146 strains (60.08%) were taken from outpatients and 97 strains (39.91%) were taken from inpatients. P. aeruginosa isolates harbored the highest levels of resistance against streptomycin (100%), nalidixic acid (100%), aztreonam (100%), cotrimoxazole (95.47%), ciprofloxacin (88.47%), cefotaxime (84.36%) and gentamycin (83.95%). Inpatients had a relatively higher levels of antibiotic resistance. One-hundred and twenty-one out of 126 (96.03%) imipenem-resistant P. aeruginosa isolates harbored the blaIMP-1 gene. Inpatients also had a relatively higher prevalence of blaIMP-1 gene. High prevalence of blaIMP-1 gene and also imipenemresistant P. aeruginosa are important public health issue. Clinical laboratories should consider the detection of the blaIMP-1 gene among the P. aeruginosa isolates of clinical samples.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 412-418
Author(s):  
Fei Xu ◽  
Cheng Chen ◽  
Xing Li ◽  
Bo Zhang

Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) is a common opportunistic and nosocomial bacterial pathogen. Various multi-resistance mechanisms present across numerous P. aeruginosa strains counteract conventional antimicrobial therapy, thereby becoming a great challenge. This study aimed to establish the application of immunomagnetic isolation and chemiluminescence to detect the presence of extended spectra of β-lactamases encoding genes: blaTEM and blaVEB; metallo-beta-lactamases encoding gene: blaVIM; aminoglycoside modifying enzymes encoding gene: aac(6)II, ant(3)I; and the specific gene for P. aeruginosa, gyrB. P. aeruginosa was specifically selected using the immunomagnetic nanoparticles (IMNPs) in the six parallel bacterial plates counting, proving that they are reliable. Then, the high efficiency of IMNPs@Probes in targeting the resistance genes of P. aeruginosa was demonstrated using the results of chemiluminescent intensities of blaTEM, blaVEB, blaVIM aac(6)II, ant(3)I, and gyrB (more than 10 times higher than that of the control). Sixty-eight in situ clinical samples were tested for the presence of these resistance genes, and one more blaTEM and three more blaVIM individuals were detected using this method compared to the traditional PCR. Thus, the application of our method in clinical screening is specific, accurate, and reliable, and it could be useful in the administration of appropriate treatment.


2019 ◽  
pp. jramc-2019-001242
Author(s):  
António Lopes-João ◽  
J R Mesquita ◽  
R de Sousa ◽  
M Oleastro ◽  
C Penha-Gonçalves ◽  
...  

IntroductionNorovirus outbreaks frequently occur in communities and institutional settings acquiring a particular significance in armed forces where prompt reporting is critical. Here we describe the epidemiological, clinical and laboratorial investigation of a multicentre gastroenteritis outbreak that was detected simultaneously in three Portuguese army units with a common food supplier, Lisbon region, between 5 and 6 December 2017.MethodsQuestionnaires were distributed to all soldiers stationed in the three affected army units, and stool specimens were collected from soldiers with acute gastrointestinal illness. Stool specimens were tested for common enteropathogenic bacteria by standard methods and screened for a panel of enteric viruses using a multiplex real-time PCR assay. Food samples were also collected for microbiological analysis. Positive stool specimens for norovirus were further genotyped.ResultsThe three simultaneous acute gastroenteritis outbreaks affected a 31 (3.5%) soldiers from a total of 874 stationed at the three units and lasted for 2 days. No secondary cases were reported. Stool specimens (N=11) were negative for all studied enteropathogenic agents but tested positive for norovirus. The recombinant norovirus GII.P16-GII.4 Sydney was identified in all positive samples with 100% identity.ConclusionsThe results are suggestive of a common source of infection plausibly related to the food supplying chain. Although centralisation of food supplying in the army has economic advantages, it may contribute to the multifocal occurrence of outbreaks. A rapid intervention is key in the mitigation of outbreak consequences and in reducing secondary transmission.


1991 ◽  
Vol 54 (9) ◽  
pp. 725-730 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.-Y. D'AOUST ◽  
A. M. SEWELL ◽  
P. GRECO

The ability of the Bactigen® Salmonella Shigella (BSST), the Microscreen® (MS), and the Spectate® (SPECT) latex agglutination kits to detect Salmonella in pure cultures and in naturally contaminated foods was examined. Of 190 Salmonella strains tested, the MS, BSST, and SPECT systems correctly identified 89.5, 81.6, and 66.3% of the test cultures, respectively. The sensitivity of SPECT increased to 92.7% when only strains belonging to the targeted serogroups (somatic A to E plus G) and strains harboring the Vi antigen were considered. The lack of specificity of the MS (3.4%), SPECT (17.0%), and BSST (33.9%) systems with 59 cultures of nonsalmonellae varied widely, with Citrobacter freundii and Escherichia coli accounting for many of the false-positive reactions. Examination of foods according to the prescribed MS and SPECT analytical test protocols identified respectively, 18 (75%) and 19 (79.2%) of the 24 food samples found to contain Salmonella spp. by a standard cultural method. Although instructions with the BSST kit indicate that the product is intended for the analysis of clinical samples, the system nevertheless identified 21 (87.5%) contaminated food samples under homologous MS and SPECT test conditions. The concurrent use of TBG43 with enrichment media recommended by kit manufactures enhanced the sensitivities of MS (83.3%), SPECT (91.7%), and BSST (91.7%). Attempts to effect greater method brevity through the application of latex kits at various stages of the standard cultural procedure were counterproductive.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document