Pulsed-Plasma Gas-Discharge Inactivation of Microbial Pathogens in Chilled Poultry Wash Water

2007 ◽  
Vol 70 (12) ◽  
pp. 2805-2810 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. J. ROWAN ◽  
S. ESPIE ◽  
J. HARROWER ◽  
J. G. ANDERSON ◽  
L. MARSILI ◽  
...  

A pulsed-plasma gas-discharge (PPGD) system was developed for the novel decontamination of chilled poultry wash water. Treatment of poultry wash water in the plasma generation chamber for up to 24 s at 4°C reduced Escherichia coli NCTC 9001, Campylobacter jejuni ATCC 33560, Campylobacter coli ATCC 33559, Listeria monocytogenes NCTC 9863, Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis ATCC 4931, and S. enterica serovar Typhimurium ATCC 14028 populations to non-detectable levels (≤8 log CFU/ml). Although similar PPGD treatments at 4°C also produced significant reductions (≥3 log CFU/ml) in recalcitrant B. cereus NCTC 11145 endospore numbers within 30 s, the level of endospore reduction was dependent on the nature of the sparged gas used in the plasma treatments. Scanning electron microscopy revealed that significant damage occurred at the cellular level in PPGD-treated test organisms. This electrotechnology delivers energy in intense ultrashort bursts, generating products such as ozone, UV light, acoustic and shock waves, and pulsed electric fields that have multiple bactericidal properties. This technology offers an exciting complementary or alternative approach for treating raw poultry wash water and for preventing cross-contamination in processing environments.

2019 ◽  
Vol 82 (11) ◽  
pp. 1896-1900
Author(s):  
A. M. JONES-IBARRA ◽  
C. Z. ALVARADO ◽  
CRAIG D. COUFAL ◽  
T. MATTHEW TAYLOR

ABSTRACT Chicken carcass frames are used to obtain mechanically separated chicken (MSC) for use in other further processed food products. Previous foodborne disease outbreaks involving Salmonella-contaminated MSC have demonstrated the potential for the human pathogen to be transmitted to consumers via MSC. The current study evaluated the efficacy of multiple treatments applied to the surfaces of chicken carcass frames to reduce microbial loads on noninoculated frames and frames inoculated with a cocktail of Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis and Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium. Inoculated or noninoculated frames were left untreated (control) or were subjected to treatment using a prototype sanitization apparatus. Treatments consisted of (i) a sterile water rinse, (ii) a water rinse followed by 5 s of UV-C light application, or (iii) an advanced oxidation process (AOP) combining 5 or 7% (v/v) hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) with UV-C light. Treatment with 7% H2O2 and UV-C light reduced numbers of aerobic bacteria by up to 1.5 log CFU per frame (P < 0.05); reductions in aerobic bacteria subjected to other treatments did not statistically differ from one another (initial mean load on nontreated frames: 3.6 ± 0.1 log CFU per frame). Salmonella numbers (mean load on inoculated, nontreated control was 5.6 ± 0.2 log CFU per frame) were maximally reduced by AOP application in comparison with other treatments. No difference in Salmonella reductions obtained by 5% H2O2 (1.1 log CFU per frame) was detected compared with that obtained following 7% H2O2 use (1.0 log CFU per frame). The AOP treatment for sanitization of chicken carcass frames reduces microbial contamination on chicken carcass frames that are subsequently used for manufacture of MSC.


2010 ◽  
Vol 192 (7) ◽  
pp. 1999-2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amalia Porta ◽  
Annamaria Eletto ◽  
Zsolt Török ◽  
Silvia Franceschelli ◽  
Attila Glatz ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT So far attenuation of pathogens has been mainly obtained by chemical or heat treatment of microbial pathogens. Recently, live attenuated strains have been produced by genetic modification. We have previously demonstrated that in several prokaryotes as well as in yeasts and mammalian cells the heat shock response is controlled by the membrane physical state (MPS). We have also shown that in Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium LT2 (Salmonella Typhimurium) overexpression of a Δ12-desaturase gene alters the MPS, inducing a sharp impairment of transcription of major heat shock genes and failure of the pathogen to grow inside macrophage (MΦ) (A. Porta et al., J. Bacteriol. 192:1988-1998, 2010). Here, we show that overexpression of a homologous Δ9-desaturase sequence in the highly virulent G217B strain of the human fungal pathogen Histoplasma capsulatum causes loss of its ability to survive and persist within murine MΦ along with the impairment of the heat shock response. When the attenuated strain of H. capsulatum was injected in a mouse model of infection, it did not cause disease. Further, treated mice were protected when challenged with the virulent fungal parental strain. Attenuation of virulence in MΦ of two evolutionarily distant pathogens was obtained by genetic modification of the MPS, suggesting that this is a new method that may be used to produce attenuation or loss of virulence in both other intracellular prokaryotic and eukaryotic pathogens. This new procedure to generate attenuated forms of pathogens may be used eventually to produce a novel class of vaccines based on the genetic manipulation of a pathogen's membrane fluid state and stress response.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. e0248975
Author(s):  
Momo Takemura ◽  
Takeshi Haneda ◽  
Hikari Idei ◽  
Tsuyoshi Miki ◽  
Nobuhiko Okada

Nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) plays a critical role in the host defense against microbial pathogens. Many pathogens modulate NF-κB signaling to establish infection in their host. Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium (S. Typhimurium) possesses two type III secretion systems (T3SS-1 and T3SS-2) and directly injects many effector proteins into host cells. It has been reported that some effectors block NF-κB signaling, but the molecular mechanism of the inactivation of NF-κB signaling in S. Typhimurium is poorly understood. Here, we identified seven type III effectors—GogA, GtgA, PipA, SseK1, SseK2, SseK3, and SteE—that inhibited NF-κB activation in HeLa cells stimulated with TNF-α. We also determined that only GogA and GtgA are involved in regulation of the activation of NF-κB in HeLa cells infected with S. Typhimurium. GogA, GtgA, and PipA are highly homologous to one another and have the consensus zinc metalloprotease HEXXH motif. Our experiments demonstrated that GogA, GtgA, and PipA each directly cleaved NF-κB p65, whereas GogA and GtgA, but not PipA, inhibited the NF-κB activation in HeLa cells infected with S. Typhimurium. Further, expressions of the gogA or gtgA gene were induced under the SPI-1-and SPI-2-inducing conditions, but expression of the pipA gene was induced only under the SPI-2-inducing condition. We also showed that PipA was secreted into RAW264.7 cells through T3SS-2. Finally, we indicated that PipA elicits bacterial dissemination in the systemic stage of infection of S. Typhimurium via a T3SS-1-independent mechanism. Collectively, our results suggest that PipA, GogA and GtgA contribute to S. Typhimurium pathogenesis in different ways.


1983 ◽  
Vol 38 (10) ◽  
pp. 1088-1092
Author(s):  
J. Hildebrandt

Abstract The radius and speed of the cylindric ionization front that expands during the application of a high-voltage pulse upon a double-plate hollow-cathode, is measured by reflection of 8 mm-microwaves. By comparing the number of transported electrons and their ionizing action, ionization by single electron collisions is shown to be impossible. In the "normal regime" below a certain voltage threshold, a pulse height variation has only an influence on the final plasma radius but not on the local speed of the cut-off surface during recombination.


1961 ◽  
Vol 16 (8) ◽  
pp. 520-538 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hendrik Zech

Crystalline or paracrystalline tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) inclusions are known to be composed mainly of densely packed TMV-rods. These inclusions were studied in situ within infected tobacco leaf hair cells by scanning UV-microspectrophotometry. Comparative measurements in the macroand micro ranges of the instruments were carried out on purified TMV at low and high concentrations, on its separated and reconstituted RNA and protein parts and on isolated TMV-crystals, to permit the interpretation of the optical properties of TMV inclusions in situ. The optical absorbance of TMV in solution and in dried concentrates at room temperature could in part be attributed to distribution inhomogeneities caused by local particle aggregations being oriented to differing degrees. The resulting non-uniform electric fields around and within such unevenly distributed particle complexes caused local jumps of the refraction index and thereby unspecific light losses, chiefly through scattering. The apparent deviation from Beers law was found to be greatest at particle concentrations of 1 - 2 per cent. At higher concentrations the contribution of scatter to light losses was found to decrease again, probably because of increasing order of particles within the aggregates. On the other hand the specific absorbance of the chromophores of TMV over a wide range of concentration was not affected to a measurable degree by changing the distances between the rods. There was no indication that the charged groups of the RNA-cores within intact particles interacted with charged groups of other particles however great their proximity. The ribose phosphate backbone of the RNA strand, deeply embedded within the protein helix, may account for this phenomenon. However, isolated TMV-RNA reacted strongly to changes of the surrounding electric fields when concentrations were varied, and showed pronounced hypochromicity at higher concentrations and following prolonged irridation by x-rays and UV-light. RNA in dried and irradiated droplets was characterized by up to 55% lower extinction coefficients than freshly prepared RNA in solution. The hyprochromic effects caused by irradiation were shown to be almost, but not completely reversible. Hypochromicity increased towards the shorter wavelengths, diminishing the ratio E260/E280 from about 2.0 for diluted RNA to 1.4 for concentrated specimens. Mixing TMV-protein subunits with RNA before drying, leading to partial reconstitution of TMV particles, diminished the hypochromic effect resulting from irradiation of the concentrate. High UV-radiation doses applied to concentrated TMV solutions led to a marked splitting of RNA from protein, as revealed by UV-spectrophotometry of the supernatants and pellets of centrifuged irradiated specimens. Model measurements of intracellular and subsequently isolated TMV crystals combined with empirically derived parameters led to the construction of a correction curve, permitting interpretations of optical measurements on in situ TMV inclusion bodies.


1952 ◽  
Vol 30 (5) ◽  
pp. 565-576 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. D. MacDonald ◽  
D. D. Betts

Electrical breakdown of neon at high frequencies has been treated theoretically on the basis of the Boltzmann transport equation. Exciting and ionizing collisions are accounted for as energy loss terms in the Boltzmann equation and measured values of the ionization efficiency are used in the integral determining the ionization rate. Electrons are lost to the discharge by diffusion. The equations are treated separately for the cases in which the collision frequency is much less than or much greater than the radian frequency of the applied field. The electron energy distribution functions are expressed in terms of Bessel functions, confluent hypergeometric functions, and simple exponentials. The ionization rate and the diffusion coefficient are calculated using these distribution functions in kinetic theory formulas, and combined with the diffusion equation to predict breakdown fields. The theoretically predicted fields are compared with experiment at 3000 Mc. per sec. The breakdown equations, calculated from kinetic theory and using no gas discharge data other than collision cross sections, predict breakdown electric fields within the limits of accuracy determined by these cross sections over a large range of experimental variables.


2008 ◽  
Vol 1096 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Shafran ◽  
Konstantinos Sierros ◽  
Wade Huebsch ◽  
Darran Cairns

AbstractStimulus responsive liquid crystal nanorods, 60 μm in length and 200 nm in diameter, were fabricated by a template synthesis technique. The liquid crystal, RM 257, is a reactive monomer which polymerizes with the application of UV light. After polymerization the liquid crystal's orientational order is permanently “frozen”. Therefore, the subsequent structures are temperature independent after curing. In this study the liquid crystal was confined in the pores of Anopore membranes before curing, which results in rod structures after photo-polymerization. After fabrication, the rods were observed under the application of both AC and DC electric fields. DC fields were noted by either up and down or translational movement of the rods. Application of AC fields resulted in random movement of the rods.


2014 ◽  
Vol 94 (2) ◽  
pp. 329-354 ◽  
Author(s):  
Asima Bhattacharyya ◽  
Ranajoy Chattopadhyay ◽  
Sankar Mitra ◽  
Sheila E. Crowe

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are generated as by-products of normal cellular metabolic activities. Superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase, and catalase are the enzymes involved in protecting cells from the damaging effects of ROS. ROS are produced in response to ultraviolet radiation, cigarette smoking, alcohol, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, ischemia-reperfusion injury, chronic infections, and inflammatory disorders. Disruption of normal cellular homeostasis by redox signaling may result in cardiovascular, neurodegenerative diseases and cancer. ROS are produced within the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, but their roles in pathophysiology and disease pathogenesis have not been well studied. Despite the protective barrier provided by the mucosa, ingested materials and microbial pathogens can induce oxidative injury and GI inflammatory responses involving the epithelium and immune/inflammatory cells. The pathogenesis of various GI diseases including peptic ulcers, gastrointestinal cancers, and inflammatory bowel disease is in part due to oxidative stress. Unraveling the signaling events initiated at the cellular level by oxidative free radicals as well as the physiological responses to such stress is important to better understand disease pathogenesis and to develop new therapies to manage a variety of conditions for which current therapies are not always sufficient.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document