Research Publications (Food Safety)

Bovine mastitis is a disease with a multi-etiological nature, defined as an infection and inflammation of the udder. Mastitis represents a significant ongoing concern in the dairy industry, leading to substantial losses in profits and revenue for farmers worldwide. The predominant causes of bovine mastitis include the pathogens Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus dysgalactiae, Streptococcus uberis, and Escherichia coli.

Catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) are one of the most common healthcare-associated infections in the US, accounting for over 1 million cases annually and totaling 450 million USD. CAUTIs have high morbidity and mortality rates and can be caused by a wide range of pathogens, making empiric treatment difficult.

A novel bacterium, designated Z-25 T, was isolated from a rice paddy rhizosphere soil sample from Wuchang County, China. The Z-25 T strain is gram-negative, rod-shaped, non-spore-forming, aerobic, motile by unipolar flagella and straw white in color. A phylogenetic analysis based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence revealed that strain Z-25 belongs to the genus Shinella, and the closest members are Shinella zoogloeoides ATCC 19623 T with 98.58% similarity, S.

Berries have been implicated as the probable vehicle of infection in multiple outbreaks of norovirus and hepatitis A virus (HAV). These foods often receive minimal or no processing and may be exposed to virus contamination at each stage of production. In an increasingly globalized world, berries have a wide distribution and can give rise to the spread of diseases in distant parts of the world.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) poses a huge threat to public health. The development of novel antibiotics is an effective strategy to tackle AMR. Cyclic diadenylate monophosphate (c-di-AMP) has recently been identified as an essential signal molecule for some important bacterial pathogens involved in various bacterial physiological processes, leading to its synthase diadenylate cyclase becoming an attractive antimicrobial drug target.

Cadmium (Cd) is widespread throughout the environment and is used in the electroplating industry. It has been found to have an effect on the endocrine system. However, its effects and their underlying mechanisms are still not clear. The aim of this study was to evaluate how cadmium exposure at work affected the levels of thyroid hormones and the associated inflammatory and oxidative markers. This study was conducted in an electroplating industry in Cairo, Egypt.

Zoonoses and Public Health, EarlyView. Salmonella can enter hatcheries via contaminated eggs and other breaches of biosecurity. The study examined the prevalence and distribution of Salmonella in commercial hatcheries and assessed the effects of providing advice on Salmonella control. Intensive swab sampling was performed throughout 23 broiler hatcheries in Great Britain (GB). Swabs were cultured using a modified ISO6579:2017 method.

Journal of Food Processing and Preservation, Accepted Article. Fresh-cut fruits and vegetables are prone to browning that leads to quality decline, low acceptability and food waste. Therefore, it is of great importance to study and alleviate the browning of fresh-cut fruits and vegetables. Plant extracts, rich in bioactive compounds like polyphenols, flavonoids, terpenes and other active ingredients, exhibit high antioxidant and anti-browning ability.

Journal of Food Processing and Preservation, Accepted Article. Ultrasound was used to degrade patulin in pH 3.5 of solution containing cysteine, and investigated the cysteine-enhanced effects on ultrasound degradation of patulin. The results showed that ultrasound alone did not efficiently degrade patulin (reduced by 4.96-8.90%) without adding cysteine, and their synergistic roles were more favorable for patulin degradation (reduced by 17.82-60.98%).

Journal of Food Processing and Preservation, Accepted Article. In this study, high intensity ultrasound (HIU), antibrowning chemicals (calcium chloride and ascorbic acid), water bath were used to avoid the browning of kiwifruit pieces, and the shelf-life of fresh-cut was measured (two weeks). The treated fresh-cut kiwi samples were evaluated in terms of color, enzyme activities, bioactive compounds, microbial and sensory studies.

Journal of Separation Science, Accepted Article. Recent findings unfold that biomass materials with the micro/mesoporous structure were often treated as adsorbents for organic substances. In this work, one-step calcination method was adopted in the preparation of magnetic porous green bean biomass material. It has the properties of magnetism and porosity after the addition of Co(NO3)2 and high temperature calcination.

Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety, EarlyView. Human infection with Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) causes an estimated 2.8 million cases of acute illness worldwide each year. Serogroup O157 is the most commonly diagnosed STEC in humans, but cases linked to non-O157 STEC serogroups have increased recently due to increased surveillance and improvements to detection methods.

Letters in Applied Microbiology, Accepted Article. Noroviruses cause acute gastroenteritis with symptoms of diarrhea and vomiting, and their high infectivity allows outbreaks to readily occur. Quickly identifying and isolating potential contaminants is an effective method to prevent the spread of outbreaks.

Journal of Applied Toxicology, Accepted Article. Nowadays, more and more attention has been focused on the risk of the neurotoxic action of cadmium (Cd) under environmental exposure. Due to the growing incidence of nervous system diseases, including neurodegenerative changes, and suggested involvement of Cd in their etiopathogenesis, this review aimed to discuss critically this element neurotoxicity.

Journal of Applied Toxicology, EarlyView. Quantum dots (QDs), with unique and tunable optical properties, have been widely used in many fields closely related to our daily lives, such as biomedical application and electronic products. Therefore, the potential toxicity of QDs on the human health should be understood. Autophagy plays an important role in cell survival and death.

The application of nanoparticles (NPs) has been proved as an efficient and promising technique for mitigating a wide range of stressors in plants. The present study elucidates the synergistic effect of iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) and silicon nanoparticles (SiNPs) in the attenuation of Cd toxicity in Phaseolus vulgaris. Seeds of P. vulgaris were treated with IONPs (10 mg/L) and SiNPs (20 mg/L). Seedlings of uniform size were transplanted to pots for 40 days.

Bacterial resistance is a growing global concern necessitating the discovery and development of antibiotics effective against the drug-resistant bacterial strain. Previously, we reported a cyclic antimicrobial peptide [R4W4] containing arginine (R) and tryptophan (W) with a MIC of 2.67 µg/mL (1.95 µM) against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).

With the increase of human activities, cadmium (Cd) pollution has become a global environmental problem affecting biological metabolism in ecosystem. Cd has a very long half-life in humans and is excreted slowly in organs, which poses a serious threat to human health.

Cadmium (Cd) contamination in soil poses a serious safety risk for the development of medicine and food with ginseng as the raw material. Microorganisms are key players in the functioning and service of soil ecosystems, but the effects of Cd-contaminated ginseng growth on these microorganisms is still poorly understood.

Human and animal feces are one of the main pollutants in drinking water systems (DWS). Both sources of fecal pollution are related to environmental conditions, such as poor land use management and little micro-basin protection. Cryptosporidium sp. and Giardia sp. are zoonotic protozoan water and foodborne transmitted parasitic pathogens and a frequent cause of diarrhea in children in low- and middle-income countries.

by Ming Da Qu, Humera Kausar, Stephen Smith, Peter G. Lazar, Aimee R. Kroll-Desrosiers, Carl Hollins III, Bruce A. Barton, Doyle V. Ward, Richard T. Ellison III Background Panton-Valentine Leukocidin (PVL) toxin in Staphylococcus aureus has been associated with both severe pneumonia and skin and soft tissue infections. However, there are only limited data on how this virulence factor may influence the clinical course or complications of bacteremic S.

by Neyna de Santos Morais, Thaís Souza Passos, Gabriela Rocha Ramos, Victoria Azevedo Freire Ferreira, Susana Margarida Gomes Moreira, Gildácio Pereira Chaves Filho, Ana Paula Gomes Barreto, Pedro Ivo Palacio Leite, Ray Silva de Almeida, Cícera Laura Roque Paulo, Rafael Fernandes, Sebastião Ânderson Dantas da Silva, Sara Sayonara da Cruz Nascimento, Francisco Canindé de Sousa Júnior, Cristiane Fernandes de Assis

Foodborne pathogen-mediated biofilms in food processing environments are severe threats to human lives. In the interest of human and environmental safety, natural substances with antimicrobial properties and generally regarded as safe (GRAS) status are the futuristic disinfectants of the food industry. In this study, the efficacy of bioactive, soluble products (metabolic by-products) from lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and plant-derived essential oils (EO) were investigated as biocidal agents.

Domoic acid (DA) is a marine neurotoxin produced as a defence compound by diatom Pseudo-nitzschia. Although its toxicity is well known in marine mammals and fish, data on DA cyto/genotoxicity in human non-target cells is still limited. Hence, we aimed to study the effect of DA (0.001 to 10 µg/mL) on cell viability and proliferation kinetics of human hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2) cells as well as DNA damage induction after 4, 24 and 72 h of exposure.

Deoxynivalenol (DON) is a mycotoxin frequently occurring in human and animal food worldwide, which raises increasing public health concerns. Growing evidence suggests that mitochondria is a pivotal molecular target for DON.