Impact of traditional practices on food safety: a case of acute toxoplasmosis related to the consumption of contaminated raw pork sausage in Italy.

A case of acute toxoplasmosis in an adolescent girl, almost certainly related to the consumption of raw sausage, is described. The girl suffered of fever and weakness and presented a swollen lymph node in the submandibular region. Serology analysis was positive for Toxoplasma gondii and excluded other infections. Further analysis, with avidity test and immunoblot, confirmed the acute toxoplasmosis. She reported that about a month before the appearance of the symptoms, she had eaten a piece of raw sausage while it was being prepared by her father. We analyzed sausage samples prepared from this same batch that had been frozen for later consumption, and they demonstrated evidence of T. gondii DNA when using a specific nested PCR assay. The sausage was prepared from the meat of a pig that had been backyard raised and slaughtered at home, a traditional practice in rural communities in many countries. The tasting of fresh prepared raw sausage is a common practice throughout Italy, and it could be a major cause for toxoplasmosis as suggested by the results of a questionnaire administered in the province of Palermo, Sicily. Contact with cats and, to a lesser extent, raw salad consumption were also referred to as presumptive causes for the symptomatic cases. Two additional cases of acute toxoplasmosis reported during questionnaire administration were alleged to have been caused by the consumption of fresh sausage made with the meat of a pig raised in the yard. Traditional practices in animal farming, and the processing of meat from animals raised in the backyard or meat from wild game animals, might have a big impact on food safety.

Topical use of sucralfate in epithelial wound healing: clinical evidences and molecular mechanisms of action.

Sucralfate is a basic aluminium salt of sucrose octasulphate which was orally employed for prevention and treatment of several gastrointestinal diseases including gastroesophageal reflux, gastric and duodenal ulcer. Recent studies have employed sucralfate as a topical drug for the healing of several types of epithelial wounds such as ulcers, inflammatory dermatitis, mucositis and burn wounds. Epithelial wound healing is a well orchestrated process involving hemostasis, inflammatory reaction, cell proliferation and tissue remodelling which leads to granulation tissue development and filling of the wound space. This report will review clinical evidences on the use of topical sucralfate for the management of epithelial lesions and deal with the current knowledge on the molecular mechanisms of action of this compound towards the epithelial wound healing process and will also discuss relevant patents.

Topical treatment of chronic venous ulcers with sucralfate: a placebo controlled randomized study.

Venous leg ulcers are an important medical issue due to their high incidence in the elderly and the lack of a standard curative approach. Apart from surgical therapy, different medical treatments to effect ulcer wound repair and regeneration are currently being investigated. Sucralfate is a cytoprotective agent employed to prevent or treat several gastrointestinal diseases such as gastroesophageal reflux, gastritis, peptic ulcer, stress ulcer and dyspepsia. In this study we evaluated the efficacy, safety and tolerability of topical sucralfate (SUC-LIS 95) on the healing of chronic venous leg ulcers in 50 patients by a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized study. Our results indicated that the daily application of SUC-LIS 95 to non-infected post-phlebitis/vascular ulcers, for a median period of 42.0 days, led to complete healing in 95.6% of patients, against only 10.9% of cases with a matched placebo. A significant improvement was obtained in the SUC-LIS 95-treated patient group with regard to local tissue inflammation as well as pain and burning, and consequently, in ulcer size and the evolution of granulation tissue. Our findings were corroborated for selected patients by the morphological analysis of biopsies obtained before and after treatment. Using ultrastructural analysis we demonstrated that the topical use of SUC-LIS 95 was able to affect neoangiogenesis, increase wound contraction, promote re-epithelialization of the wound area and diminish the inflammatory reaction. Overall, our results indicated that patients with chronic venous ulcers show improvement after the use of topical sucralfate.

Serologic and molecular characterization of Anaplasma species infection in farm animals and ticks from Sicily.

Although Anaplasma marginale was known to be endemic in Italy, the diversity of Anaplasma spp. from this area have not been characterized. In this study, the prevalence of Anaplasma spp. antibodies in randomly selected farm animals collected on the island of Sicily was determined by use of a MSP5 cELISA for Anaplasma spp. and an immunofluorescence test specific for Anaplasma phagocytophilum. Genetic variation among strains of Anaplasma spp. from animals and ticks was characterized using the A. marginale msp1alpha and the Anaplasma spp. msp4 genes. Eight species of ticks were collected and tested by PCR. Seropositivity for Anaplasma spp. and A. phagocytophilum was detected in bovine and ovine samples. All the donkeys were seropositive for A. phagocytophilum but not for Anaplasma spp. Four A. marginale genotypes were identified by msp4 sequences from bovine and tick samples. Two new genotypes of Anaplasma ovis were characterized in sheep. The sequences of A. phagocytophilum from three donkeys proved to be identical to the sequence of the MRK equine isolate from California. Six A. marginale genotypes were found in cattle and one tick using the A. marginale msp1alpha sequences. All genotypes had four repeated sequences in the N-terminal portion of the MSP1a, except for one that had five repeats. The Italian strains of A. marginale contained three repeat sequences that were not reported previously. Definition of the diversity of Anaplasma spp. in Sicily reported, herein is fundamental to development of control strategies for A. marginale, A. ovis and A. phagocytophilum in Sicily.