Ribotyping and a Study of Transmission of Staphylococcus aureus Collected from Food Preparation Facilities

2004 ◽  
Vol 67 (6) ◽  
pp. 1116-1122 ◽  
Author(s):  
MICHIRU KISHIMOTO ◽  
YUICHI HIOKI ◽  
TETSUYA OKANO ◽  
HIROTAKA KONUMA ◽  
KAZUHIRO TAKAMIZAWA ◽  
...  

Food poisoning from Staphylococcus aureus is sometimes caused by improper handling of food items in food preparation facilities. Prevention of contamination by employees is particularly important in facilities where a significant amount of food preparation is performed by hand. Some experiments have been performed to describe bacterial cross-contamination in the food preparation process, but there have been few studies of cross-contamination in actual food preparation facilities. Aiming to shed light on the transmission of S. aureus in food preparation facilities, this study collected samples of 66 strains of this bacterium from the fingers of food preparation staff, foodstuffs, prepared foods, cooking utensils, and cooking equipment and typed them with the ribotyping method. S. aureus from the same ribogroup was detected on the hands of a study participant, a faucet, knife, frying pan, and a salad, indicating that bacteria found on the hands of the study participant was transmitted to cooking utensils and prepared foods. Transmission (from a faucet to a frying pan handle) of bacteria by another person, a third party, was also detected.

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (9) ◽  
pp. 430-436
Author(s):  
Song Jing Ling ◽  
Hassan Z. ◽  
Regina G.

Food borne diseases cause millions of deaths every year around the world. The major factors contributing to food borne diseases and the prevalence of food poisoning among students are the food preparation process, lifestyles, physical cleanliness and water supplies. Food mismanagement by food handlers and students’ and food handlers’ poor knowledge of food hygiene are the factors that lead to food poisoning among school students. The objectives of this study are to: investigate how food handlers carry out food preparation; determine students’ and handlers’ standards of food hygiene assess the physical cleanliness of school canteens and the purity of their water supplies; and develop guidelines for the prevention of food poisoning. The aspects investigated in this study are the food preparation process, knowledge of food hygiene, physical cleanliness and food poisoning prevention methods.


Author(s):  
Fatima N. Aziz ◽  
Laith Abdul Hassan Mohammed-Jawad

Food poisoning due to the bacteria is a big global problem in economically and human's health. This problem refers to an illness which is due to infection or the toxin exists in nature and the food that use. Milk is considered a nutritious food because it contains proteins and vitamins. The aim of this study is to detect and phylogeny characterization of staphylococcal enterotoxin B gene (Seb). A total of 200 milk and cheese samples were screened. One hundred ten isolates of Staphylococcus aureus pre-confirmed using selective and differential media with biochemical tests. Genomic DNA was extracted from the isolates and the SEB gene detects using conventional PCR with specific primers. Three staphylococcus aureus isolates were found to be positive for Seb gene using PCR and confirmed by sequencing. Sequence homology showed variety range of identity starting from (100% to 38%). Phylogenetic tree analyses show that samples (6 and 5) are correlated with S. epidermidis. This study discovered that isolates (A6-RLQ and A5-RLQ) are significantly clustered in a group with non- human pathogen Staphylococcus agnetis.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Luz Gonzalez-Gadea ◽  
Antonella Dominguez ◽  
Agustin Petroni

Children tend to punish norm transgressions, even when they are mere external observers—a phenomenon known as third-party punishment. This behavior is influenced by group biases, as children unevenly punish in-group and out-group members.Two opposing hypotheses have been proposed to explain group biases during third-party punishment: the Norms-Focused Hypothesis predicts that individuals punish more harshly selfishness by in-group than by out-group members; contrarily, the Mere Preferences Hypothesis predicts that people are more lenient to selfishness by in-group than by out-group members. Here, we tested these hypotheses in children between six and 11 years of age (N=124) and explored the mechanisms underlying group biases during the development of third-party punishment. Our results supported the Norms-Focused Hypothesis: children preferentially punished unfair sharing from in-group members evidencing in-group policing bias, and they were also more willing to punish selfishness directed at in-group members than out-group members, showing in-group favoritism bias. We observed different developmental trajectories and mechanisms associated with these biases: while in-group policing remained stable over childhood as automatic as well as more effortful and controlled processes, in-group favoritism increases with age and was manifested only in the context of more controlled processes. These results shed light on the mechanisms underlying the development of third-party decisions and could be used to plan strategies and interventions to manipulate group biases in children.


Author(s):  
Moeed Yusuf

This book is the first to theorize third party mediation in crises between regional nuclear powers. Its relevance flows from two of the most significant international developments since the end of the Cold War: the emergence of regional nuclear rivalries; and the shift from the Cold War’s bipolar context to today’s unipolar international setting. Moving away from the traditional bilateral deterrence models, the book conceptualizes crisis behavior as “brokered bargaining”: a three-way bargaining framework where the regional rivals and the ‘third party’ seek to influence each other to behave in line with their crisis objectives and in so doing, affect each other’s crisis behavior. The book tests brokered bargaining theory by examining U.S.-led crisis management in South Asia, analyzing three major crises between India and Pakistan: the Kargil conflict, 1999; the 2001-02 nuclear standoff; and the Mumbai crisis, 2008. The case studies find strong evidence of behavior predicted by the brokered bargaining framework. They also shed light on several risks of misperceptions and inadvertence due to the challenges inherent in signaling to multiple audiences simultaneously. Traditional explanations rooted in bilateral deterrence models do not account for these, leaving a void with serious practical consequences, which the introduction of brokered bargaining seeks to fill. The book’s findings also offer lessons for crises on the Korean peninsula, between China and India, and between potential nuclear rivals in the Middle East.


Author(s):  
Charles Roddie

When interacting with others, it is often important for you to know what they have done in similar situations in the past: to know their reputation. One reason is that their past behavior may be a guide to their future behavior. A second reason is that their past behavior may have qualified them for reward and cooperation, or for punishment and revenge. The fact that you respond positively or negatively to the reputation of others then generates incentives for them to maintain good reputations. This article surveys the game theory literature which analyses the mechanisms and incentives involved in reputation. It also discusses how experiments have shed light on strategic behavior involved in maintaining reputations, and the adequacy of unreliable and third party information (gossip) for maintaining incentives for cooperation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (8) ◽  
pp. 4015
Author(s):  
Kyoung Ok Jang ◽  
Youn Woo Lee ◽  
Hangeun Kim ◽  
Dae Kyun Chung

Staphylococcus aureus is a species of Gram-positive staphylococcus. It can cause sinusitis, respiratory infections, skin infections, and food poisoning. Recently, it was discovered that S. aureus infects epithelial cells, but the interaction between S. aureus and the host is not well known. In this study, we confirmed S. aureus to be internalized by HaCaT cells using the ESAT-6-like protein EsxB and amplified within the host over time by escaping host immunity. S. aureus increases the expression of decay-accelerating factor (CD55) on the surfaces of host cells, which inhibits the activation of the complement system. This mechanism makes it possible for S. aureus to survive in host cells. S. aureus, sufficiently amplified within the host, is released through the initiation of cell death. On the other hand, the infected host cells increase their surface expression of UL16 binding protein 1 to inform immune cells that they are infected and try to be eliminated. These host defense systems seem to involve the alteration of tight junctions and the induction of ligand expression to activate immune cells. Taken together, our study elucidates a novel aspect of the mechanisms of infection and immune system evasion for S. aureus.


2001 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 72-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
YUHUAN CHEN ◽  
KRISTIN M. JACKSON ◽  
FABIOLA P. CHEA ◽  
DONALD W. SCHAFFNER

This study investigated bacterial transfer rates between hands and other common surfaces involved in food preparation in the kitchen. Nalidixic acid–resistant Enterobacter aerogenes B199A was used as a surrogate microorganism to follow the cross-contamination events. Samples from at least 30 different participants were collected to determine the statistical distribution of each cross-contamination rate and to quantify the natural variability associated with that rate. The transfer rates among hands, foods, and kitchen surfaces were highly variable, being as low as 0.0005% and as high as 100%. A normal distribution was used to describe the variability in the logarithm of the transfer rates. The mean ± SD of the normal distributions were, in log percent transfer rate, chicken to hand (0.94 ± 0.68), cutting board to lettuce (0.90 ± 0.59), spigot to hand (0.36 ± 0.90), hand to lettuce (−0.12 ± 1.07), prewashed hand to postwashed hand (i.e., hand washing efficiency) (−0.20 ± 1.42), and hand to spigot (−0.80 ± 1.09). Quantifying the cross-contamination risk associated with various steps in the food preparation process can provide a scientific basis for risk management efforts in both home and food service kitchens.


mBio ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew J. Belousoff ◽  
Zohar Eyal ◽  
Mazdak Radjainia ◽  
Tofayel Ahmed ◽  
Rebecca S. Bamert ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT An unorthodox, surprising mechanism of resistance to the antibiotic linezolid was revealed by cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) in the 70S ribosomes from a clinical isolate of Staphylococcus aureus. This high-resolution structural information demonstrated that a single amino acid deletion in ribosomal protein uL3 confers linezolid resistance despite being located 24 Å away from the linezolid binding pocket in the peptidyl-transferase center. The mutation induces a cascade of allosteric structural rearrangements of the rRNA that ultimately results in the alteration of the antibiotic binding site. IMPORTANCE The growing burden on human health caused by various antibiotic resistance mutations now includes prevalent Staphylococcus aureus resistance to last-line antimicrobial drugs such as linezolid and daptomycin. Structure-informed drug modification represents a frontier with respect to designing advanced clinical therapies, but success in this strategy requires rapid, facile means to shed light on the structural basis for drug resistance (D. Brown, Nat Rev Drug Discov 14:821–832, 2015, https://doi.org/10.1038/nrd4675 ). Here, detailed structural information demonstrates that a common mechanism is at play in linezolid resistance and provides a step toward the redesign of oxazolidinone antibiotics, a strategy that could thwart known mechanisms of linezolid resistance. IMPORTANCE The growing burden on human health caused by various antibiotic resistance mutations now includes prevalent Staphylococcus aureus resistance to last-line antimicrobial drugs such as linezolid and daptomycin. Structure-informed drug modification represents a frontier with respect to designing advanced clinical therapies, but success in this strategy requires rapid, facile means to shed light on the structural basis for drug resistance (D. Brown, Nat Rev Drug Discov 14:821–832, 2015, https://doi.org/10.1038/nrd4675 ). Here, detailed structural information demonstrates that a common mechanism is at play in linezolid resistance and provides a step toward the redesign of oxazolidinone antibiotics, a strategy that could thwart known mechanisms of linezolid resistance.


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