Listeria monocytogenes: ocorrência em produtos lácteos e suas implicações em saúde pública / Listeria monocytogenes: occurrence in dairy products and its implications in public health

Listeria monocytogenes é o agente causador da listeriose, uma grave doença de origem alimentar que causa severas infecções em humanos com altas taxas de mortalidade. O leite e seus derivados estão entre os produtos alimentícios mais frequentemente envolvidos na transmissão de L. monocytogenes. A listeriose acomete, sobretudo, indivíduos imunodeprimidos, grávidas, recémnascidos e idosos, o que ressalta o caráter oportunista deste micro-organismo e sua importância para a saúde pública. No presente trabalho, faz-se uma revisão narrativa crítica sobre o risco à saúde humana decorrente da ingestão de leite e derivados contaminados por L. monocytogenes, bem como se discutem os fatores que determinam a contaminação por L. monocytogenes na cadeia de produção e distribuição de leite e derivados. São apresentados e avaliados os dados de ocorrência de L. monocytogenes em leite cru e em produtos lácteos no Brasil, tendo em vista seu potencial de envolvimento em casos de listeriose humana. Adicionalmente, são indicadas as principais áreas de pesquisa e atuação para prevenir a contaminação de L. monocytogenes em produtos lácteos.

Listeria monocytogenes is the causative agent of listeriosis, a serious foodborne disease that promotes severe human infections with high mortality rates. Milk and byproducts are among the food products most often involved in the transmission of L. monocytogenes. Listeriosis mainly affects immunodepressed individuals, pregnant women, neonates and the elderly, thus emphasizing its opportunistic character and importance to public health. The present article presents a narrative and critical review concerning the risk to human health from the consumption of dairy products contaminated with L. monocytogenes. Also, a discussion is made on the factors that determine the contamination by L. monocytogenes in the production and distribution chain of milk and dairy products. The available data on the occurrence of L. monocytogenes in raw milk and dairy products in Brazil are also presented and evaluated, taking into consideration its potential for involvement in human listeriosis outbreaks. Additionally, this review indicates the main research and work areas needed for the prevention of L. monocytogenes contamination in dairy products.

Performance of indirect immunofluorescence assay, immunochromatography assay and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction for detecting human respiratory syncytial virus in nasopharyngeal aspirate samples

Comparison of the use of indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFA), immunochromatography assay (ICA-BD) and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) for detecting human respiratory syncytial virus (HRSV) in 306 nasopharyngeal aspirates samples (NPA) was performed in order to assess their analytical performance. By comparing the results obtained using ICA-BD with those using IFA, we found relative indices of 85.0 percent for sensitivity and 91.2 percent for specificity, and the positive (PPV) and negative (NPV) predictive values were 85.0 percent and 91.2 percent, respectively. The relative indices for sensitivity and specificity as well as the PPV and NPV for RT-PCR were 98.0 percent, 89.0 percent, 84.0 percent and 99.0 percent, respectively, when compared to the results of IFA. In addition, comparison of the results of ICA-BD and those of RT-PCR yielded relative indices of 79.5 percent for sensitivity and 95.4 percent for specificity, as well as PPV and NPV of 92.9 percent and 86.0 percent, respectively. Although RT-PCR has shown the best performance, the substantial agreement between the ICA-BD and IFA results suggests that ICA-BD, also in addition to being a rapid and facile assay, could be suitable as an alternative diagnostic screening for HRSV infection in children.

Atividade lipolítica do leite com células somáticas ajustadas para diferentes níveis / Lipolytic activity of milk with different somatic cells levels

Estimou-se a origem da atividade lipolítica do leite com contagens de células somáticas (CCS) ajustadas para diferentes níveis. A partir de lotes de leite cru com baixa (100.000 cel/ml) e alta (1.000.000 cel/ml) CCS, formaram-se três tratamentos: A) leite com baixa CCS; B) leite com alta CCS; C) leite originalmente com baixa CCS e com adição de células somáticas. O leite foi submetido à pasteurização e armazenado por 21 dias sob refrigeração a 6ºC. Durante o período de armazenamento, foram coletadas amostras nos dias 1, 7, 14 e 21 para avaliação da concentração de ácidos graxos livres (AGL). Não foi observado efeito de tratamento sobre a concentração de AGL, durante todo o período de armazenamento e nem em cada dia de coleta isoladamente, cujas médias de AGL, após 21 dias, foram de 0,181; 0,159 e 0,153meq/kg, respectivamente, para os tratamentos A, B e C. Observou-se efeito do tempo de armazenamento sobre a concentração de AGL do leite, independentemente dos tratamentos, com teores de AGL de 0,121meq/kg para o dia 1 e de 0,219 para o dia 21. Pode-se concluir que, independentemente da contagem de células somáticas do leite cru, ocorre aumento da lipólise do leite pasteurizado durante o período de armazenamento. A adição de células somáticas ao leite, originalmente com baixa CCS, não aumentou a taxa de lipólise durante o armazenamento refrigerado

The lipolytic activity of milk with different somatic cell counts (SCC) was investigated in samples with low (100,000 cells.ml-1) and high (1,000,000 cells.mlÕ) SCC in order to obtain the following treatments: A) low SCC milk; B) high SCC milk; C) low SCC milk with somatic cells added, taken from high SCC milk. All samples were pasteurized and kept refrigerated at 6ºC for 21 days. Repeated measures during storage time were performed from pasteurized milk at days 1, 7, 14 and 21 to evaluate free fatty acid (FFA) concentrations. No effect of treatments was observed on milk FFA concentration during storage period, nor during each day of sampling, with FFA averaging 0.181; 0.159 and 0.153meq/kg for treatments A, B and C, respectively. FFA concentration in pasteurized milk increased during the storage period, independently of the milk SCC, as the level of FFA was 0.121 meq/kg on day 1 and 0.219 on day 21. Addition of somatic cells to low somatic cell milk did not increase lipolysis rate of milk during refrigerated storage. It can be concluded that pasteurized milk fat breakdown during refrigerated storage is not related to enzymes from somatic cells