Emerging pathogens in meat and poultry.

Meat and poultry are among the leading vehicles for foodborne illnesses around the world and are responsible for sickening million of people worldwide.Outbreaks from foodborne diseases are widely reported and are responsible for several recalls in several countries. 

 These pathogens cause these infections are typically zoonotic and can be introduced at any point along the food chain,starting from when the animal is raised, to the day of slaughter and beyond, up to the processing to consumption. 

 A significant number of pathogens can be transmitted to humans through meat and poultry, and the risks have changed over time. The public health threat posed by some pathogens has diminished, while others have persisted for decades.

 New, often more virulent strains of existing disease agents continue to emerge, along with previously unknown pathogens such as the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) while some emerging pathogens, such as E. coli O157:H7, have eventually developed into major food safety concerns. 

 The food safety measures to allay public health concerns must be adaptable systems that are able to detect, assess, and control both emerging and established risks. continue

Insecticide treatment of cattle to kill sand flies and combat leishmaniasis.

A research published in the PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases shows that spraying insecticides on the cattle will prevent the incidence of visceral leishmaniasis as the causative sand flies will be destroyed . An estimated 500,000 human infections and 50,000 deaths annually, visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is the second most prevalent parasitic killer, after malaria. Leishmania parasites are transmitted through the bite of phlebotomine sand flies. Combating the insects by treating cattle with fipronil, will substantially reduce VL in areas where people and cattle live in close proximity. Fipronil is an insecticide with a long half-life. The insecticide remains in the system of animals for several weeks to several months, dependening on the concentration administered. Fipronil does not have any adverse effect onb mammals at low concentrations, but when fed to cattle at low concentrations in drug form, can kill adult blood-feeding sand flies and sand fly larvae that feed on the cattle feces. The use of Fipronil to control sand flies will last for several months following a single treatment,coupled with the practice of indoor spraying. Female sand flies primarily bite humans and cattle especially at night, and after sand fly eggs hatch, the larvae feed on organic matter, the most abundant source being cow patties. The means of control of sand flies involves indoor residual spraying with pyrethroid insecticides, but exposure is normally possible in rural dwellers that sleep outside especially during the hot months.

A patch that delivers drug, gene, and light-based therapy to tumor sites.

Its estimated that one in 20 people will develop colorectal cancer in their lifetime, making it the third-most prevalent form of the disease in the U.S. In Europe, it is the second-most common form of cancer. The most widely used first line of treatment is surgery, but this can result in incomplete removal of the tumor. Cancer cells can be left behind, potentially leading to recurrence and increased risk of metastasis. Indeed, while many patients remain cancer-free for months or even years after surgery, tumors are known to recur in up to 50 percent of cases. Conventional therapies used to prevent tumors recurring after surgery do not sufficiently differentiate between healthy and cancerous cells, leading to serious side effects. A research published in the journal Nature Materials shows how researchers at MIT describe an adhesive patch that can stick to the tumor site, either before or after surgery, to deliver a triple-combination of drug, gene, and photo (light-based) therapy. The patch has a triple combination therapy locally at the tumor site, and this will increase the efficacy of the treatment. The general approach to cancer treatment is the use of systemic, therapies such as chemotherapy drugs, but the lack of specificity of anticancer drugs means they produce undesired side effects when systemically administered.This coupled with the fact that only a small portion of the drugs reaches the tumor site makes this approach ineffective. The researchers made a triple-therapy hydrogel patch, which can be used to treat tumors locally. This is particularly effective as it can treat not only the tumor itself but any cells left at the site after surgery, preventing the cancer from recurring or metastasizing in the future. Firstly, the patch contains gold nanorods, which heat up when near-infrared radiation is applied to the local area. This is used to thermally kill or destroy, the tumor.These nanorods are also equipped with a chemotherapy drug, which is released when they are heated, to target the tumor and its surrounding cells. Finally, gold nanospheres that do not heat up in response to the near-infrared radiation are used to deliver RNA, or gene therapy to the site, in order to silence an important oncogene in colorectal cancer. Oncogenes are genes that can cause healthy cells to transform into tumor cells. The researchers envision that a clinician could remove the tumor, and then apply the patch to the inner surface of the colon, to ensure that no cells that are likely to cause cancer recurrence remain at the site. As the patch degrades, it will gradually release the various therapies. The patch can also serve as a neoadjuvant, a therapy designed to shrink tumors prior to their resection. When the treatment was done in mice, 40 % of cases where the patch was not applied after tumor removal, the cancer returned. When the patch was applied after surgery, the treatment resulted in complete remission,and even when the tumor was not removed, the triple-action therapy alone was enough to destroy it.

DOCTORS AND PUBLIC HEALTH EXPERTS CALL ON UN TO ACT ON ANTIBIOTICS.

The U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) delivered a letter signed by leaders in the American public health and medical communities to the U.S. Delegation of the United Nations today urging them to push for international action to stop the misuse of antibiotics on livestock and poultry. The letter is in anticipation of the UN General Assembly’s first ever high-level meeting on antibiotic resistance this week. “Global leaders have failed to act in a unified way to protect life-saving antibiotics. Now we find ourselves at the cliff’s edge—just a step away from a post-antibiotic era. It’s time to act,” said Dr. Lance Price, Director of the Antibiotic Resistance Action Center, Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University. “We need a global agreement to protect medically important antibiotics from overuse and misuse in industrial farming and in human medicine.” The UN doesn’t convene high level meetings on health issues lightly, having done so only a handful of times in the past. Antibiotic resistance warrants the spotlight. A study conducted for the United Kingdom estimates that unless immediate action is taken, drug resistant infections could kill more people worldwide per year by 2050 than cancer does today. Although antibiotics are sometimes misused in human medicine, the widespread overuse of the drugs on livestock and poultry has also been connected to the spread of antibiotic resistant bacteria. In the United States, approximately 70% of medically important antibiotics sold are for use on livestock and poultry. The drugs are often given routinely to animals that aren’t sick to promote growth and prevent disease common in unsanitary conditions. This overuse can encourage the growth of antibiotic resistant bacteria, which can spread to people through contaminated food, human to animal contact, air born dust and water runoff. “These miracles of modern medicine are slipping through our fingers,” said Patrice Snow, U.S. PIRG Antibiotics Program Director. “In order to preserve antibiotics for the future, we need to stop overusing and misusing them on healthy farm animals.” more

Scientists create live offspring without a female egg.

A study documented in journal of Natures Communication has shown how scientists have been able to breed produce offspring's from 2 males.The experiment by the University of Bath rewrites years of biology teaching and could pave the way for a baby to be born from the DNA of two men. It was always thought that only a female egg could spark the changes in a sperm required to make a baby, because an egg forms from a special kind of cell division in which just half the number of chromosomes are carried over.Sperm cells form in the same way, so that when a sperm and egg meet they form a full genetic quota, with half our DNA coming from our mother and half from our father. Scientists have shown embryos could be created from cells which carry all their chromosomes which means that, in theory, any cell in the human body could be fertilized by a sperm.Three generations of mice have already been created using the technique and are fit and healthy and now researchers are planning to test out the theory using skin cells. The experiment involved, scientists stimulating an egg into developing into an embryo using special chemicals which makes the egg think it has been fertilized. Technically the cells in an embryo copy themselves completely when they divide, and so mirror closely most other cells in the body, such as skin cells. When scientists injected the embryos with sperm, they grew into healthy mice which went on to produce their own litters. The technique shows a possibility for gay men to have children, whose DNA was half of each of the couple, although a woman would still need to act as a surrogate to carry the baby.It also amplifies the possibility that a man could even fertilize his own cells to produce offspring containing a mixture of genes inherited from him and his parents. Women can also benefit from this technique, women whose fertility has been erased by cancer drugs or radiotherapy to have their own children. The current method is for eggs to be frozen before cancer therapy and later fertilized in an IVF clinic, but nothing can be done once the eggs have been lost may be due to aging . This technique will also help women to continue having children later in life even after menopause. Its known that women are born with all their eggs but these degrade with age, which makes conception more difficult in later life. The possibility of fertilizing new skin cells to produce off springs will improve and increase the chances of having a baby at any age depending on the health status of the mother. The animal world will also have a piece of the cake as conception using sperm cells with non-egg cells(primed skin cells) will prolong the lines of certain species as endangered species will not be a problem since the need to recover eggs is erased. The preservation of certain breeds,with pure lines will be possible and with immense benefits.

The link between flowers and bacteria transmission in wild bees.

A study has shown that multiple flower and wild bee species share several of the same types of bacteria,as these bacteria may play important roles in bee health. The research, published in the journal Microbial Ecology, shows for the first time that multiple flower and wild bee species share several of the same types of bacteria. Wild bees although not as widely studied as honey bees or bumblebees, are a critical in the pollination puzzle. Wild bees could become more important because of the decline in numbers of honey bees due to colony collapse disorder, which has resulted in the loss of more than 10 million hives in the past decade. The team collected wild bees and flowers from 2 locations,they simulated bee nests by drilling holes into wood and placing these nests in fields with wildflowers,because wild bees naturally nest in abandoned holes in trees created by beetles. The bees established nests in wood and they were collected , the microbiomes of their guts and the pollen they were carrying was analyzed. They also collected flowers at the site including those that the bees visited and flowers that they didn't visit. They ensured flowers that had not been visited by bees, had bags placed over them before they bloomed and then picked them once they matured and opened. The result showed that the bacteria were present on the flowers whether they were bagged or not. The presence of bee-associated bacteria in bagged flowers suggests the bacteria may be transmitted to flowers via plant surfaces, the air or small insects. The bacteria shared by flowers and wild bees is believed to be beneficial because of the presence of Lactobacillus bacteria, which was found on all the flower and bee samples.

Rapid test to detect salmonella in meat and poultry.

A study published in the journal of food safety,shows a rapid test to detect salmonella in meat and poultry. Salmonella is the leading cause of food borne illnesses so an early detection of the pathogen, by a rapid and sensitive test is important to prevent the illness and economic losses. Scientists led by University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences researchers has found a faster and more precise way to detect salmonella in beef and chicken. In the study, researchers artificially contaminated food with salmonella, and then tested the food samples using Salmonella-specific antibodies combined with a unique signal amplification technique. The test found salmonella present after 15 hours and removed other microorganisms that sometimes clutter laboratory results. This is shorter than the two to three days it takes to detect salmonella in a culture.This test is an effective simple monitoring system for food borne pathogens in food samples, which can improve food safety .