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Salmonella is an important zoonotic pathogen in animals and humans. In the European Union, Salmonella enterica subspecies enterica serovar Enteritidis (serovar Enteritidis) is one of the serovars most frequently associated with human illness. The most important food vehicles responsible for the infection are eggs and egg products. We describe two serovar Enteritidis outbreaks on account of consumption of contaminated eggs. The first outbreak due to vanilla cream served as dessert in a restaurant involved 36 persons. As the eggs used in preparing the vanilla cream were no longer available for examination, an indirect epidemiological link between the infected laying hen flock and humans was demonstrated by testing the faeces and dust samples from the relevant laying hen flock. In the second outbreak, two persons developed a severe form of salmonellosis after having consumed fried eggs. A sample of eggs taken from the same laying hen flock as the eggs consumed by the two patients tested positive for serovar Enteritidis. Isolates from both the outbreaks were subjected to molecular typing for the assessment of genetic relatedness. Pulsedfield gel electrophoresis (PFGE) revealed that the profiles of the majority of isolates from the same outbreak were indistinguishable and should therefore be considered to represent the same strain. This is the first molecular epidemiological investigation of serovar Enteritidis outbreaks in Slovenia that involved the public health and veterinary authorities and as such set a good example of collaboration of different national services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to improve our knowledge concerning the epidemiology and strain diversity of Staphylococcus epidermidis isolated from bovine milk in commercial dairy herds. A total of 341 S. epidermidis isolates obtained from cows’ milk (317), farmers (17) and patients (7) were characterized. Of these 105 isolates were from cows’ milk in two farms, where also 17 isolates were sampled from farmers. The remaining 212 isolates from cows’ milk were from 170 farms. All isolates were examined by antimicrobial susceptibility, whereas 202 were examined by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and 122 by ribotyping. PFGE showed single patterns in the human strains with one exception; one strain was categorised as the same clone as four of the milk strains. PFGE divided 73 of the milk strains into 62 different patterns. The PFGE method had high discriminatory power and shows that many different S. epidermidis types exist in milk samples. Antibiotic resistance patterns matched the SmaI profiles closely in the two herds, but poorly in the routinely collected milk samples. Isolates from herd 1 showed one to five patterns, depending on the typing method used. Isolates from the milker''s skin showed one pattern, which was identical to the most common pattern found in the milk isolates. Isolates from herd 2 showed three to four patterns, two of these being identical to skin isolates from the milker. As dairy cows are not a natural host for S. epidermidis the results suggest a human source of these udder infections. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Twenty-three Escherichia coli O26 strains from humans, cattle, sheep, pigs and chicken were investigated for virulence markers and for genetic similarity by pulsed field gel electrophoresis and multi locus sequence typing. Two groups of genetically closely related O26 strains were defined. One group is formed by enteropathogenic (EPEC) and enterohemorrhagic (EHEC) E. coli strains, which do not ferment rhamnose and dulcitol and most of these carry a plasmid encoding enterohemolysin. The other group consists of rhamnose and dulcitol fermenting EPEC strains, which carry plasmids encoding α-hemolysin. Multiple species of domestic animals were shown to serve as a reservoir for human pathogenic O26 EPEC and EHEC strains. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Expression rates of long (L) and short (S) alleles of the serotonin (5-HT) transporter (5-HTT) gene have been shown to differ under various circumstances. We compared 5-HTT uptake (function) level and paroxetine binding (density) in platelets of alcoholics as indices of 5-HTT expression rate among LL, LS, and SS genotypes. Concentration curves of [3H]5-HT and [3H]paroxetine were used to quantify the equilibrium constant (Km) and maximum 5-HT uptake rate (Vmax) for 5-HTT uptake into intact platelets and the dissociation constant (Kd) and maximum specific binding density (Bmax) for paroxetine binding to platelet membranes, respectively. Genotypes were determined using electrophoresis with fluorescent markers. Vmax for 5-HTT uptake did not correlate with Bmax for paroxetine binding (r=−0.095, P=0.415). Means of Vmax and Bmax did not differ in a statistically significant manner among LL, LS, and SS genotypes in these alcoholic subjects. However, Vmax for LL and SS appeared to have a bimodal distribution, so the percentage of subjects with Vmax <200 fmol/min-107 platelets was statistically significantly higher in LL than in SS (51.5% vs. 22.7%, respectively), with an odds ratio of 3.6 (P<0.05). The percentage of Vmax <200 fmol/min-107 platelets for LS was 39.3% (not significant vs. LL or SS). Previous studies of healthy human controls have shown that 5-HTT density in raphe nuclei and 5-HTT uptake in platelets are higher in the LL genotype than in S carriers. Our findings in currently drinking alcoholics support the hypothesis that those with the LL genotype of the 5′-HTTLPR region of the 5-HTT gene have reduced 5-HTT function. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In the present study we examined schizophrenic patients'' lymphocytes sensitivity to the effects of external factors, such as hydrogen peroxide and γ-irradiation and also their repair efficiency with the comet assay. Our results did no show any difference in basal levels of DNA damage between schizophrenic and normal populations. The slightly increased sensitivity of the schizophrenic population to the externally induced DNA damage compared to controls was not statistically significant. Also the small reduction in the DNA repair efficiency in schizophrenics in comparison to normal population was found to be not statistically significant. Finally, patients with heritable predisposition to schizophrenia did not show any difference in their response from the other schizophrenics. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The protein composition of human saliva depends on psycho-emotional state of individuals. Depression was accompanied by decrease of proteins of molecular masses ranging from 20 to 200 kD, whereas emotionally positive intellectual activity caused the opposite effect. It is suggested that human saliva may be used as an experimental model for the development of diagnostics of various psycho-physiological states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]