Search

Salmonella contamination in pig slaughterhouses is linked to infection rate on farms. Accurate diagnosis in heavy pigs relies on isolating pathogens from the gut wall or lymph nodes. A key technique is Immunocapture using Magnetic Beads (IMS), which purifies target bacteria from Salmonella enrichment broths. This is followed by an Enzyme-Linked Immunomagnetic Electrochemical (ELIME) assay for rapid detection. In our study, we developed an ELIME-IMS hybrid assay to detect Salmonella in swine mesenteric lymph nodes (MNL), involving a clean-up with N-acetylcysteine and centrifugation. Detection limits for S. Typhimurium and S. Derby were estimated at 2.80 and 3.52 Log CFU/ml, respectively. We analysed 103 MNL samples from a northern Italy slaughterhouse. Additionally, we examined 15 carcass swabs. Both the ELIME assay and the IMS-based culture method showed strong agreement with the ISO 6579-1:2017 method, especially after 20 h of enrichment (89.47% concordance). The clean-up step significantly influenced the results, as samples processed without it showed higher variability. A logistic regression model indicated high classification accuracy for negative samples using ELIME values. The ELIME-IMS assay facilitates rapid Salmonella screening and isolation in swine mesenteric lymph nodes., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

In 2008 the European Commission developed an EU framework for dietary sodium chloride (NaCl) reduction in order to achieve the World Health Organization recommendations for no more than 5 g/day/person. This initiative is based on four elements: investigate the national data available on NaCl consumption and current NaCl levels of foods, develop actions to raise public awareness, develop reformulation actions with industry/catering, monitor and evaluate actions and reformulations. The initiative is working towards a reduction in NaCl of 16% over 4 years against the 2008 levels and is concentrated on meat products, bread, cheese, and ready meals. In this context, NaCl content and mineral composition of commercial Italian salami were investigated to provide information on their current mineral levels. Moreover, a technological intervention based on NaCl partial replacement by other chloride salts was investigated on Cacciatore salami, a typical Italian dry fermented sausage, as a strategy to decrease the sodium (Na) content of cured meat products. The effect of NaCl partial replacement by KCl, MgCl2, and CaCl2 in some compositional, physicochemical, and sensory properties of Cacciatore salami was evaluated. A 50% reduction of NaCl used for salami manufacture and its replacement by a mixture of KCl, CaCl2, and MgCl2 allowed a 40% lowering of Na content with limited detrimental effects on sensory attributes. Although no effects were observed on pH, water activity, proximate, and free fatty acid composition in reduced sodium Cacciatore salami formulation compared to the traditional one, the NaCl partial replacement induced a significant increase of lipid oxidation., (Copyright © 2010 The American Meat Science Association. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

This study reports for the first time the detection of Brachyspira aalborgi in faeces and rectal biopsies of a female suffering for 3-4 months of abdominal pain with long-standing mucosal diarrhoea, rectal bleeding and suspected carcinoma of the rectum. After pre-treatment of samples (faeces and biopsies) with a liquid medium (trypticase soy broth-TSB) containing foetal calf serum (FCS, 10%) and spectinomycin and rifampicin (TSB-SR) the first detection of B. aalborgi isolate HBS1 was observed after 48 h in the primary plates of selective blood agar modified medium (BAM) containing spectinomycin and rifampicin (BAM-SR), where growth zones were signalled by a small weakly beta-haemolytic halo. Attempts to subculture spirochaetes in agar media failed. The new HBS1 isolate was only propagated in TSB broth and at electron microscopy it showed 4 endoflagella inserted at each tapered end. The phenotypic characterization of HBS1 demonstrated absence of hippurate hydrolysis, indole production, alpha-galactosidase, alpha- and beta-glucosidase activities in accordance with the B. aalborgi type strain. Rapid identification of B. aalborgi isolate HBS1 was performed directly from faeces and rectal biopsies and subsequently from pure cultures by a genetic method based on 16S DNA restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP)-polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The sequence of 16S DNA amplicon of the isolate HBS1 was found 99.2% corresponding to that of the B. aalborgi type strain. Our results encourage further investigations for the development of a suitable selective agar medium for the isolating and cultivating B. aalborgi from human specimens.