Welcome to the Microbiology Information

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You have a continual contamination problem that’s costing you money.

Now the biggest question is how do you solve it?

Unfortunately, most people try to fix it themselves because it’s lower cost. But is it? The scatter gun approach is one of the most commonly used tool where you fire everything at the problem hoping that it will disappear. Unfortunately, it does not work that way.

The solution is to bring in someone with technical expertise in a similar field and most importantly a strong technical microbiological background (not QA background). The initial costs may be high ($200 per hour), but it’s worth it in the end. By using their microbiological tracking skills – they’ll use tools to track the microorganism and along with their knowledge of the growth characteristics of the specific microorganisms – devised controls points to stop them and remove them.

Fix it, don’t risk it.

It seems that contamination is a big issue in the food industry, however stopping it from happening is not an easy task. Most experts talk about putting sanitised footbaths in place, but how many of them really know what they are talking about.

Well, I finally found this great a site with a bootwasher that works. it not only scrubs the boots, but also sanitises them as well. With harder and stronger brushes, its guarantee to work.
You don’t expect anything less from German Engineering. http://www.heute.com.au

Listeria is a commonly found in food manufacturing environment.

The only reason it exist is that it is commonly found in drains and even the surrounding areas – and controls to reduce the levels are not functioning.

Controls that are commonly found in entrances such as sanitized footbaths are not as effective as some you may think.

What you need is an effective sanitizer and something that physically scrubs the shoe and boot such as bootwasher to not only remove organic matter, but also sanitise the boots as well. A good quality boot washer is more effective and recommended.

Onchocerciasis is an infection caused by Onchocerca volvulus, a parasite nematode worm transmitted to humans by a species of black fly of the Simulium genus whose larvae develop in fast-flowing rivers.

Infected subjects suffer not only from severe skin lesions but also eye damage that can lead to irreversible of−loss of sight, hence the name ‘river blindness’. A huge majority (99%) of the 37 million people
infected by the parasite live in SubSaharan. Ivermectin, a medicine capable of killing the parasite
embryos (the microfilariae) circulating in the organism of patients and temporarily interrupting the nematode’s reproduction, is the only treatment used for onchocerciasis control.

Since 1995, the African Programme for Onchocerciasis Control (APOC) has been covering 19 of the
continent’s 28 countries hit by the disease. Access to this treatment is possible for 70 million people and has
significantly diminished the onchocerciasis-induced morbidity. However, the doubling of cases of infection in
certain communities of Ghana between 2000 and 2005, in spite of annual treatments, created fear of the emergence of ivermectin-resistant strains. Such apprehension appears particularly justified in that a high degree of therapeutic cover is achieved during mass distribution campaigns and hence only a tiny part of the parasite population targeted remains unexposed to drug treatment pressure.

Since 1994, a team of IRD researchers, working jointly with Cameroon researchers and others from McGill University of Montreal, has been monitoring a cohort of Cameroon patients benefiting from repeated treatments with ivermectin. Regular parasite sampling from these subjects was performed over a 13-year period in order to determine the changes in the genetic structure of Onchocerca volvulus
populations. Each occasion involved measurement of the genotype frequency of heterozygotes and homozygotes for the gene coding β-tubulin, a protein involved in the organization of the parasite’s cells. The team focused on this particular gene because it acts as a marker of resistance to ivermectin in other nematode species parasitic on cattle. As a control, they monitored the changes in genotype frequency
of two other genes, known for their high evolutionary stability over time. The proportion of homozygotes and heterozygotes for these two genes remained stable throughout the investigation, but the situation was
completely different for the β-tubulin gene.

Between 1994 and 1998, the percentage of parasites showing a genotype homozygous for this gene fell from 79 to 31% in subjects receiving quarterly treatment with ivermectin. At the same time, the proportion of heterozygous genotypes changed in the opposite sense, rising from 21 to 69%. These results could be the sign of adaptation of nematode worm populations to repeated treatments using this drug. The research team inferred that the parasites showing a genotype homozygous for β-tubulin are more susceptible to
it. As courses of treatment progressed, they would therefore gradually disappear, to the benefit of the more resistant heterozygous strains. Ivermectin’s effect on microfilariae, other than its direct one, is to prevent them from leaving the uterus of adult worms, for several months after treatment: this is its embryostatic effect. Post-treatment, there were more microfilariae in the uterus of homozygous female parasites than in those of heterozygous females.

This could mean that, in the latter, the microfilariae succeed in leaving the uterus, as they usually do in the absence of treatment, and therefore that the embryostatic effect of ivermectin would be diminished. Contrary to the effect anticipated, the repeated exposure to treatments could in this way select those worms more able to keep up the production of new generations. Nevertheless, the drug’s direct action on the moment, there is no reason to call into question the current control strategy against the disease based on annual treatments with ivermectin.

Affirmation of the results requires further investigations1, starting from new cohorts subjects infected by Onchocerca volvulus who have not yet been treated with ivermectin. This type of approach should bring more information on the risks of the parasite’s resistance to this drug. If such risks were confirmed, then the whole onchocerciasis control strategy would probably have to be revised. Nevertheless, for many years to come, ivermectin could well remain the sole drug applicable for mass treatment in measures to control river blindness.

An eight hour listeria test is what DuPont Qualicon has just annouced.

The new test is genetic-based and allows food companies to detect Listeria on environmental surfaces in only eight hours.

A spokes person for DuPont Qualicon says the new assay “is the first commercial application of Reverse-Transcriptase PCR for bacterial testing in food.” It is part of a suite of BAX(R) system products.

“This flexible test can give food companies clear, precise results at the end of a shift,” said Kevin Huttman, president of DuPont Qualicon. “With fast, accurate detection of Listeria, even at low concentrations, food processors get the information they need to take action sooner and release product faster.”

Listeria is found in many kinds of foods and us usually killed with proper cooking. Ready-to-eat products, such as hot dogs and deli meat, can become contaminated between cooking and packaging, however. The infection Listeriosis is caused by eating food contaminated with pathogenic Listeria monocytogenes. This illness is especially risky for pregnant women and immuno-compromised individuals. DuPont Qualicon said.

Applications

The BAX® system detects all species of Listeria, even at very low concentrations (101 cfu/mL).

With reverse-transcriptase PCR, samples do not require the usual 24-48 hour enrichment in nutrient brotoh. Instead, Listeria cells are resuscitated by heating in the collection buffer solution for four hours, providing a jump-start to the process.

Validation studies on stainless steel using both the classic and Q7 models have shown that the BAX® system detected more positive results on spiked samples than the reference USDA FSIS culture method. In a panel of 58 strains across 7 species of Listeria and 52 strains of non-Listeria, the assay demonstrated 100% inclusivity/exclusivity.

Approvals

The BAX® system 8-hour Listeria assay will be submitted to AOAC-RI for Performance Tested Method approval.

Source

Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres – Science Daily — A German-American research team of biologists and geochemists has discovered hitherto unknown anaerobic bacteria in marine sediments which need only propane or butane for growth, as recently reported by the scientific journal “Nature.”

The hydrocarbons ethane, propane and butane — as well as the main component, methane — are the major constituents of natural gas.

Biological processes may lead to the degradation of these hydrocarbons in underground petroleum reservoirs and other geological habitats.

Heinz Wilkes, a leading biogeochemist at GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam (GFZ), points out: “The bacteria isolated here for the first time from marine sediments use sulphate instead of oxygen for respiration and utilize propane and butane as their sole source of carbon and energy. These organisms are tough specialists that have become adapted to strictly utilising only these and no other substrates.”

The investigations showed that the bacteria employ an unprecedented biochemical mechanism for transforming what are essentially unreactive hydrocarbons into reactive metabolites which may then be further oxidised to carbon dioxide.

The findings concerning this reaction mechanism are an important step in designing new synthetic methods for selectively producing chemicals from hydrocarbons.

The effort to find preserved samples of the 1918 influenza virus has been a pursuit of both historical and medical importance.

The influenza pandemic in 1918 was the most devastating single disease outbreak in modern history, and examining the virus that caused it may help prepare for, and possibly prevent, future pandemics. When the complete sequence of the 1918 virus was published in 2005, it represented a watershed event for influenza researchers worldwide.

An article in the journal Antiviral Therapy, scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, narrate the story of how scientists discovered samples of the 1918 strain in fixed autopsy tissues and in the body of a woman buried in the Alaskan permafrost.

The article places this discovery in the context of decades of research into the cause of pandemic influenza, and the authors detail the strange convergence of events that allowed them to recover and sequence the virus in the first place. Its genetic material is so fragile that it should not have survived for days, let alone decades.

In a mass grave in a remote Inuit village near the town of Brevig Mission, a large Inuit woman lay buried under more than six feet of ice and dirt for more than 75 years. The permafrost plus the woman’s ample fat stores kept the virus in her lungs so well preserved that when a team of scientists exhumed her body in the late 1990s, they could recover enough viral RNA to sequence the 1918 strain in its whole entirety. This remarkable good fortune enabled these scientists to open a window onto a past pandemic. It could also help mankind gain a foothold for preventing a future one.

On the morning during August, several students from Northern Lehigh High School showed symptoms of staphylococcus infections or possibly respiratory “walking pneumonia.”

Later in the day, Principal Aileen Yadush wrote a letter to parents and had it posted on the school district’s Web site under a bold red link reading, “Alert!: Staphylococcus Infection Letter.”

The letter mentions the source of the infections was unclear but they narrowed it down to the school’s field house weight room.

The field house was closed and a professional cleaning crew was hired to scrub every surface and every piece of equipment.

The letter explained what type of bacteria it is – staphylococcus aureus, how to look for symptoms and what to do in case something unusual is found on students’ bodies.

The letter also assured parents and students “we will take every possible precaution in maintaining their safety and health.” which is a bold statement.

In a recent environmental survey conducted by University of Arizona researchers, surfaces in teachers’ classrooms came in as the Number 1 workplace for germs which is nearly 20 times higher than those found in lawyers’ offices, and seven times higher than doctors’ offices.

With over 2,000 parents questioned in the survey, 14 percent said they send their children to school despite running a fever higher than 100 degrees.

Educating children on proper hand washing and taking basic sanitation measures could hold down the germ level.

Bethlehem Health Bureau Director Judy Maloney says the bureau and local schools work clean-hand in clean-hand using a program called Germ City: Clean Hands, Healthy People.

The bureau also mailed a letter to principals at elementary and middle schools.

That letter urges schools to contact parents and let them know how important it is to keep sick children home.

Dr. Bonnie Coyle, director of St. Luke’s Hospital’s Community Health Department in Fountain Hill, says direct education programs are recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to corral germs.

“If there is a child that has a disease that is a community health threat,” she says, “we get involved.”

In New Jersey, Mary Van Horn, supervisor of the Warren County Board of Health in Washington, says, “My department focuses on flu and pneumonia immunization, but good hand washing is so important.”

Coyle ventures one reason why.

“I think we’re seeing more emerging infectious disease threats,” Coyle says. “As the world becomes smaller through international travel, we’re seeing more drug-resistant tuberculosis. Then there are the things that have always been there (flu, staphylococcus, meningitis and other infectious diseases.)”

Coyle also says that since the 9/11 terrorism attacks, bioterrorism is becoming an issue.

“It’s certainly not a crisis,” she soothes, “but it’s something schools need to keep in mind.”

Source

New Zealand with only a population of 6 million people is a nation of food worriers after a 750 people survey found some interesting data on their views of food and food borne pathogens.

Interestingly, scientists believe people may be anxiously worrying over small issues that pose little risk to their health.

In the phone survey conducted for the New Zealand Food Safety Authority (NZFSA), they found that salmonella was the worst food fear, with 77 per cent being “very concerned” about it.

In addition, an antibiotic in meat was next with 67 per cent and campylobacter with 63 per cent.

But scientist Dr Donald Campbell said people were missing the three biggest threats to life, the amount of salt, fat and sugar in their diet.

Interestingly, people were more concern about eating at local buffets, food halls and ethnic restaurants than food made at home in an unhygienic way.

Campbell, the NZFSA principal adviser of public health, was surprised salmonella was the most feared.

“I would have expected campylobacter to be higher than salmonella,” he said.

Campylobacter had a greater impact on the community than salmonella. There were generally 10 times as many cases of campylobacter in a year than salmonella, said Campbell.

New Zealand had a 15 per cent rise in notified campylobacter cases last year to 15,873, compared with 1335 cases of salmonella.

Both are food-borne illnesses that have been associated with chicken and raw meats, and can cause symptoms of diarrhea, abdominal pain, nausea and headache.

Canterbury medical officer of health Alistair Humphrey put campylobacter high on his list of concerns.

But he said many other bugs lurked in food, including norovirus which causes gastroenteritis’s of which there had been outbreaks in Christchurch.

Antibiotics used in animals for therapeutic purposes and to prevent disease may scare consumers towards vegetarianism, but “the evidence is of it being a very low risk,” Campbell said.

Listeria was a rarer food-borne illness (19 cases nationally last year) but could have devastating consequences, he said. At least half of cases occurred in pregnant women and one in four of their babies have died.

Listeria is linked to deli meats, poultry products, smoked seafood’s, soft cheeses and pre-cooked sausages. However stronger regulations have forced many food manufacturers to comply with strict hygiene.

Participants were more spooked about the use of pesticides in food production and additives.

More than 60 per cent of participants were “very concerned” about their potential effects.

Campbell said these were more “perceived risk” than actual risk, as pesticides and additives were covered by regulations.

The authority commissions the surveys every few years to gauge public feeling and tailor its food safety messages. “We eat at least three times a day, so it matters to us all,” Campbell said.

Genetically modified food greatly concerned 56 per cent of respondents, about the same as in two previous years, whereas a new category, food from cloned animals, worried 54 per cent.

“There is such a small use of genetically modified food. I would not put them as high on the list,” said Campbell.

Food allergies and irradiated food brought up the rear, with 47 per cent and 41 per cent respectively.