Research Publications (Food Safety)

Foodborne pathogens compromise food safety and public health, and Salmonella spp. are among the major pathogenic bacteria that cause outbreaks worldwide. Proper surveillance through timely and cost-effective detection methods across the food animal production chain is crucial to prevent Salmonella outbreaks and agricultural losses. Traditional culture methods are labor- and resource-intensive, with lengthy turnaround times.

The classic immunoblot technique is an important tool for identification and characterization of target proteins. However, a standard protocol for this classic immunoblot assay involves many steps that may cause experimental variations in each step and make quantification of antibodies in sera difficult.

Salmonella enterica in agricultural environments has become an important concern, due to its potential transmission to humans and the associated public health risks. To identify genes contributing to Salmonella adaptation to such environments, transposon sequencing has been used in recent years.

The poultry industry in developing countries is still combating mortality and economic loss due to Salmonella contamination. Salmonella Gallinarum is a common pathogen of poultry birds, being the etiologic agent of fowl typhoid, which specifically infects adult birds via the oral-fecal route. Timely detection of S. gallinarum in poultry flocks can allow early treatment intervention leading to a decrease in economic losses. Detection of S.

Salmonella species are Gram-negative bacteria with more than 2600 serovars. Among these serovars, many are associated with various diseases in livestock and humans. White Kauffman Le-Minor (WKL) serotyping scheme applies specific serum to determine the serovars of Salmonella. Recent studies have applied molecular methods for serovar predictions. These methods include PCR, hybridization and sequence data to detect/predict serovar-specific genetic elements.

In order to provide more phylogenetic information of Campylobacter coli in large-scale epidemiological investigation, this work was undertaken to develop a novel genotyping method based on amplified intergenic locus polymorphism (AILP), by using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE; using SmaI enzymes) as control. Eleven pairs of primers were selected to type C. coli strains for this purpose. A total of 68 C.

The aim of this study was to compare the disk diffusion (DD) and the broth microdilution (BMD) methods in determining the antimicrobial susceptibility of 36 Campylobacter isolates of meat-origin to six antibacterial drugs (erythromycin, ciprofloxacin, tetracycline, streptomycin, gentamicin and nalidixic acid). All the available zone diameter and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) breakpoints of C. jejuni and C.

A lattice was designed and fabricated using three-dimensional (3D) printing that allows for the facile transfer of biofilms formed from either Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, or Pseudomonas aeruginosa into a fresh cell culture flask. To enhance biofilm production onto the filaments, three protein-based treatments were compared: fetal bovine serum (FBS), bovine serum albumin (BSA), and fibrinogen (Fb).

Nonspecific binding of proteins from complex food matrices is a significant challenge associated with a biosensor using gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). To overcome this, we developed an efficient EDTA chelating treatment to denature milk proteins and prevent their adsorption on AuNPs. The use of EDTA to solubilize proteins enabled a sensitive label-free apta-sensor platform for colorimetric detection of Staphylococcus aureus in milk and infant formula.

Background Salmonella enterica is among the major burdens for public health at global level. Typing of salmonellae below the species level is fundamental for different purposes, but traditional methods are expensive, technically demanding, and time-consuming, and therefore limited to reference centers.

Campylobacter spp. are the leading cause of bacterial foodborne infections in both developed and developing countries. The food commodities primarily attributed to campylobacteriosis include raw milk, poultry, seafood, and fresh produce. Furthermore, insects, animal/bird fecal material, and agricultural water have been shown to be the sources of Campylobacter contamination in these commodities.

The detection of Salmonella in food is based on the use of a selective enrichment broth such as Muller-Kauffman Tetrathionate-Novobiocin (MKTTn), in which tetrathionate plays a key role by providing Salmonella with a growth advantage. As sodium tetrathionate is unstable, it is generated in situ by the addition of iodine (Lugol's solution) before seeding.

Clostridium perfringens is a Gram-positive pathogen with low GC content.

Red fermented rice (RFR) is produced using Monascus spp. This product has some health benefits. However, RFR can also contain the mycotoxin, citrinin (CIT) and that has adverse effects on human health.

Laboratory procedures performed in water treatment studies frequently require the characterization of (oo)cyst suspensions. Standard methods commonly used are laborious, expensive and time-consuming, besides requiring well-trained personnel to prepare samples with fluorescent staining and perform analysis under fluorescence microscopy.

Coagulase-negative Staphylococcus hominis causes bloodstream infections and often can form biofilms on medical devices. This study aimed to improve the current methodology for antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) in biofilm-growing S. hominis isolates. Biofilm production of S.

Introduction

Neisseria gonorrhoeae is a major concern of public health due to its extraordinary capacity to develop and acquire resistance to different antimicrobials used to treat gonorrhoea. Limited treatment options and uncontrolled transmission have raised the need to assess the antimicrobial susceptibility profile of the isolates and to establish affordable alternatives for laboratory diagnosis.

Objectives

Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) is routinely used for bacterial identification in clinical laboratories. Bacterial protein expression may differ according to their growth conditions, especially the culture medium composition.

Campylobacter jejuni is a globally important foodborne pathogen that can exist environmentally in a viable but non-culturable (VBNC) state, leading to missed detection of VBNC cells in food and false results in epidemiological surveillance. To establish a method for its resuscitation from the VBNC state and enable better detection, the mechanisms by which C. jejuni are induced into the VBNC state should be understood in detail.

Many factors affecting satellitism tests are unclear, and it is difficult to avoid misidentification, even if the medium is properly selected. We investigated the factors causing false-positive results for Haemophilus influenzae and false-negative results for Haemophilus parainfluenzae in the satellitism tests using Staphylococcus aureus as the source of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD). H.