Genetic virulence of biofilm-forming Salmonella recovered from chicken sausages and nuggets

Aims@#Salmonella is one of the most common foodborne illnesses worldwide. Poultry meat and products are the main sources of human infection. Therefore, the main objective of the current study was to assess the genetic virulence of biofilm-forming Salmonella isolated from chicken sausage and nuggets.@*Methodology and results@#Isolation of Salmonella was carried out using XLD agar; suspected colonies were identified biochemically and then serotyped using the Kauffman-White scheme for detection of somatic (O) and flagellar (H) antigens. Congo red (CR) medium was used for the assessment of biofilm formation of the isolated strains. The invasion gene (invA), the heat-labile Salmonella enterotoxin gene (stn), plasmid-encoded fimbriae (pefA) genes, the protein effectors sopB, sopD and biofilm genes in six Salmonella isolates were investigated using mPCR, following QIAamp® DNA Mini Kit instructions and 1.5% agarose gel electrophoreses. Salmonella was detected in 12%, 8% and 4% of the examined frozen packaged raw chicken sausage, frozen packaged raw chicken nuggets and ready-to-eat sausage. The isolated strains were S. Typhimurium, S. Enteritidis, S. Essen and S. Montevideo. Moreover, mPCR indicated the presence of biofilm gene (csgD gene), stn, sopB and sopD virulence genes in all isolated strains (100%); however, pefA gene failed to be detected.@*Conclusion, significance and impact of study@#The current findings showed that every Salmonella isolate examined was capable of creating biofilm at room temperature. As a result, these isolates are more likely to persist on abiotic surfaces, which raises the danger of cross-contamination and foodborne outbreaks.

Changes in hearing during extracorporeal cardiopulmonary bypass

Sudden sensory-neural hearing loss has been reported after the use of the extracorporeal cardiopulmonary bypass apparatus. This study was conducted on 50 patients who underwent surgery requiring the use of apparatus. Preoperative, postoperative and long term follow-up audiologic assessments were performed together with recording of all possible contributing factors such as the bypass time, aortic clamp time, peri and postoperative medications in an attempt to cover all possible aspects of this problem. A bilateral 10 dB increase of threshold including most frequencies occurred in only 4 patients. Although an embolic etiology has been suggested in most previously published reports, doubt is cast on this causation which is discussed in detail. The very mild bilateral hearing loss in our series can. be explained more likely on the basis of perfusion failure theory in addition to the possibility of ototoxicity