Incidence of Listeria monocytogenes and Listeria spp. in a Small-Scale Mushroom Production Facility

2013 ◽  
Vol 76 (4) ◽  
pp. 608-615 ◽  
Author(s):  
PREMA VISWANATH ◽  
LATHA MURUGESAN ◽  
STEPHEN J. KNABEL ◽  
BINDHU VERGHESE ◽  
NAVEEN CHIKTHIMMAH ◽  
...  

Listeria monocytogenes is a foodborne pathogen of significant concern to the agricultural and food processing industry because of its ability to grow and persist in cool and moist environments and its association with listeriosis, a disease with a very high mortality rate. Although there have been no listeriosis outbreaks attributed to fresh mushrooms in the United States, retail surveys and recalls are evidence that L. monocytogenes contamination of mushrooms (Agaricus bisporus) can occur. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of Listeria spp., including L. monocytogenes, in a small-scale mushroom production facility on the campus of the Pennsylvania State University in the United States. Of 184 samples taken from five production zones within the facility, 29 (15.8%) samples were positive for Listeria spp. Among the Listeria spp. isolates, L. innocua was most prevalent (10.3%) followed by L. welshimeri (3.3%), L. monocytogenes (1.6%), and L. grayi (0.5%). L. monocytogenes was recovered only from the phase I raw material composting area. Isolates of L. monocytogenes were confirmed and serotyped by multiplex PCR. The epidemiological relatedness of the three L. monocytogenes isolates to those serotypes or lineages frequently encountered in listeriosis infections was determined by multi-virulence-locus sequence typing using six virulence genes, namely, prfA, inlB, inlC, dal, clpP, and lisR. The phylogenetic positions of the three isolates in the dendrogram prepared with data from other isolates of L. monocytogenes showed that all isolates were grouped with serotype 4a, lineage IIIA. To date, this serotype has rarely been reported in foodborne disease outbreaks.

1993 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
pp. 151-151
Author(s):  
R. William Orr ◽  
Richard H. Fluegeman

In 1990 (Fluegeman and Orr) the writers published a short study on known North American cyclocystoids. This enigmatic group is best represented in the United States Devonian by only two specimens, both illustrated in the 1990 report. Previously, the Cortland, New York, specimen initially described by Heaslip (1969) was housed at State University College at Cortland, New York, and the Logansport, Indiana, specimen was housed at Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana. Both institutions recognize the importance of permanently placing these rare specimens in a proper paleontologic repository with other cyclocystoids. Therefore, these two specimens have been transferred to the curated paleontologic collection at the University of Cincinnati Geological Museum where they can be readily studied by future workers in association with a good assemblage of Ordovician specimens of the Cyclocystoidea.


2021 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-136
Author(s):  
Rick Mitchell

As today’s catastrophic Covid-19 pandemic exacerbates ongoing crises, including systemic racism, rising ethno-nationalism, and fossil-fuelled climate change, the neoliberal world that we inhabit is becoming increasingly hostile, particularly for the most vulnerable. Even in the United States, as armed white-supremacist, pro-Trump forces face off against protesters seeking justice for African Americans, the hostility is increasingly palpable, and often frightening. Yet as millions of Black Lives Matter protesters demonstrated after the brutal police killing of George Floyd, the current, intersecting crises – worsened by Trump’s criminalization of anti-racism protesters and his dismissal of science – demand a serious, engaged, response from activists as well as artists. The title of this article is meant to evoke not only the state of the unusually cruel moment through which we are living, but also the very different approaches to performance of both Brecht and Artaud, whose ideas, along with those of others – including Benjamin, Butler, Latour, Mbembe, and Césaire – inform the radical, open-ended, post-pandemic theatre practice proposed in this essay. A critically acclaimed dramatist as well as Professor of English and Playwriting at California State University, Northridge, Mitchell’s published volumes of plays include Disaster Capitalism; or Money Can’t Buy You Love: Three Plays; Brecht in L.A.; and Ventriloquist: Two Plays and Ventriloquial Miscellany. He is the editor of Experimental O’Neill, and is currently at work on a series of post-pandemic plays.


1975 ◽  
Vol 132 (2) ◽  
pp. 224-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. M. Hughes ◽  
M. H. Merson ◽  
R. A. Pollard

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1973 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 413-417
Author(s):  
Richard E. Dixon ◽  
Richard A. Kaslow ◽  
George F. Mallison ◽  
John V. Bennett

Following the Food and Drug Administration's release of recommendations on limiting the use of products containing hexachlorophene (HCP) for bathing newborn infants, 142 hospitals spontaneously reported outbreaks of neonatal staphybococcal disease. Epidemiologic investigations were carried out in 73 of these hospitals; 66 had confirmed outbreaks of neonatal staphylococcal disease. In 60 of the 66, discontinuation of HCP bathing of newborn infants preceded the epidemic. Alterations in handwashing policies did not appear implicated in any outbreak investigated. These findings suggested that discontinuation of HCP bathing of newborn infants was associated with increased incidence of neonatal staphylococcal disease.


1987 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 188-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. LOVETT ◽  
D. W. FRANCIS ◽  
J. M. HUNT

To determine the incidence of Listeria monocytogenes in raw milk, an isolation method was evaluated and used to analyze milk from three areas of the United States. The incidence varied by area from 0% in California to 7% in Massachusetts, with an overall incidence of 4.2%. The highest incidence found in any area during a single sampling period was 12% in Massachusetts in March 1985. During that same sampling, the incidence for all Listeria species was 26%. Of the 27 L. monocytogenes strains isolated during the survey, 25 were pathogenic in adult mice. One of three Listeria ivanovii isolated was pathogenic. No other isolates demonstrated pathogenicity.


2018 ◽  
Vol 69 (3) ◽  
pp. 428-437 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eelco Franz ◽  
Ovidiu Rotariu ◽  
Bruno S Lopes ◽  
Marion MacRae ◽  
James L Bono ◽  
...  

AbstractBackgroundShiga toxin–producing Escherchia coli (STEC) O157:H7 is a zoonotic pathogen that causes numerous food and waterborne disease outbreaks. It is globally distributed, but its origin and the temporal sequence of its geographical spread are unknown.MethodsWe analyzed whole-genome sequencing data of 757 isolates from 4 continents, and performed a pan-genome analysis to identify the core genome and, from this, extracted single-nucleotide polymorphisms. A timed phylogeographic analysis was performed on a subset of the isolates to investigate its worldwide spread.ResultsThe common ancestor of this set of isolates occurred around 1890 (1845–1925) and originated from the Netherlands. Phylogeographic analysis identified 34 major transmission events. The earliest were predominantly intercontinental, moving from Europe to Australia around 1937 (1909–1958), to the United States in 1941 (1921–1962), to Canada in 1960 (1943–1979), and from Australia to New Zealand in 1966 (1943–1982). This pre-dates the first reported human case of E. coli O157:H7, which was in 1975 from the United States.ConclusionsInter- and intra-continental transmission events have resulted in the current international distribution of E. coli O157:H7, and it is likely that these events were facilitated by animal movements (eg, Holstein Friesian cattle). These findings will inform policy on action that is crucial to reduce the further spread of E. coli O157:H7 and other (emerging) STEC strains globally.


2017 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. E8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francis J. Jareczek ◽  
Marshall T. Holland ◽  
Matthew A. Howard ◽  
Timothy Walch ◽  
Taylor J. Abel

Neurosurgery for the treatment of psychological disorders has a checkered history in the United States. Prior to the advent of antipsychotic medications, individuals with severe mental illness were institutionalized and subjected to extreme therapies in an attempt to palliate their symptoms. Psychiatrist Walter Freeman first introduced psychosurgery, in the form of frontal lobotomy, as an intervention that could offer some hope to those patients in whom all other treatments had failed. Since that time, however, the use of psychosurgery in the United States has waxed and waned significantly, though literature describing its use is relatively sparse. In an effort to contribute to a better understanding of the evolution of psychosurgery, the authors describe the history of psychosurgery in the state of Iowa and particularly at the University of Iowa Department of Neurosurgery. An interesting aspect of psychosurgery at the University of Iowa is that these procedures have been nearly continuously active since Freeman introduced the lobotomy in the 1930s. Frontal lobotomies and transorbital leukotomies were performed by physicians in the state mental health institutions as well as by neurosurgeons at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (formerly known as the State University of Iowa Hospital). Though the early technique of frontal lobotomy quickly fell out of favor, the use of neurosurgery to treat select cases of intractable mental illness persisted as a collaborative treatment effort between psychiatrists and neurosurgeons at Iowa. Frontal lobotomies gave way to more targeted lesions such as anterior cingulotomies and to neuromodulation through deep brain stimulation. As knowledge of brain circuits and the pathophysiology underlying mental illness continues to grow, surgical intervention for psychiatric pathologies is likely to persist as a viable treatment option for select patients at the University of Iowa and in the larger medical community.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document