Assessment of the microbiological quality of natural mineral waters according to the manufacturing time of 20 L returnable packs in Brazil.

This study aimed to assess the microbiological quality of natural mineral waters commercialized in 20 L returnable packs in Brazil by investigating the presence of bacteria and viruses in packs with different manufacturing times (Tm). With this purpose, 99 water samples from 33 lots (n = 3/batch) of 15 brands, obtained from packs with three intervals of Tm, were analyzed. Total coliforms (16.2%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (9.9%), sulphite-reducing Clostridium (5.0%) and Escherichia coli (2.0%) were detected but enterococci and norovirus GII not. Regarding brands, 11 (73.3%) presented unsatisfactory results for at least one of the lots analyzed. Pseudomonas aeruginosa analysis revealed six sequence types and strains were susceptible to all antibiotics tested and were able to produce biofilms. Human adenovirus (4) and norovirus GI (9) were also identified in nine samples randomly selected. Natural mineral waters commercialized in 20 L packs with Tm ≥ 2 years presented more microbiological contamination (P ≤ 0.012) than ones with a Tm of 0-1 year or a Tm of 1-2 years. These results suggest that the validity period of reusable 20 L packs should be reduced or that they can no longer be reused.

Sublethal amounts of Origanum vulgare L. essential oil and carvacrol cause injury and changes in membrane fatty acid of Salmonella Typhimurium cultivated in a meat broth.

This study aimed to evaluate whether sublethal concentrations of the essential oil of Origanum vulgare L. (OVEO) and its major compound carvacrol (CAR) cause injury to the cell membrane and outer membrane of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium ATCC 14028 grown in a meat broth and to assess the effect of these substances on membrane fatty acid (FA) composition. Exposure of Salmonella Typhimurium ATCC 14028 to sublethal concentrations of OVEO or CAR caused damage to the cytoplasmic membrane and outer membrane. OVEO- and CAR-treated cells showed lower amounts of saturated FA than nontreated cells. Changes in membrane FA composition were mainly related to an increase of C16:1ω7c, C16:1ω7t, and C18:2ω6c, and to a decrease of C16:0, C17:0 cyclo, and C19:0 cyclo. These results indicate that exposure to sublethal concentrations of OVEO or CAR caused sublethal injury Salmonella Typhimurium ATCC 14028 and suggest that an adaptive response to these stresses is related to increased synthesis of unsaturated FA and cis-trans isomerization.

Rosmarinus officinalis L. essential oil and its majority compound 1,8-cineole at sublethal amounts induce no direct and cross protection in Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 6538.

In this study, the inhibitory efficacy of Rosmarinus officinalis essential L. (ROEO) and 1,8-cineole (CIN) in inhibiting the growth and survival of Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 6538 and the induction of direct and bacterial cross protection (lactic acid pH 5.2; NaCl 100 g/L; high temperature 45°C) were evaluated following exposure to sublethal and increasing amounts of these treatments in meat broth. All of the concentrations of the ROEO and CIN examined in this study (minimum inhibitory concentration [MIC], 1/2 MIC, and 1/4 MIC) inhibited the viability of S. aureus throughout the 120 min of exposure. The overnight exposure of S. aureus to sublethal amounts of both ROEO or CIN in meat broth did not result in direct or cross protection. Cells progressively subcultured (24-h cycles) in meat broth with increasing amounts of ROEO or CIN showed no increased direct tolerance. These results reveal the antimicrobial efficacy of ROEO and CIN for use in food conservation systems as anti-S. aureus compounds given their efficacy at inhibiting bacterial growth, in addition to their lack of induction for the development of homologous and heterologous resistance.

Evidence for lack of acquisition of tolerance in Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium ATCC 14028 after exposure to subinhibitory amounts of Origanum vulgare L. essential oil and carvacrol.

Overnight exposure of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium to sublethal amounts of Origanum vulgare essential oil (OV) and carvacrol (CAR) did not result in direct and cross-bacterial protection. Cells subcultured with increasing amounts of OV or CAR survived up to the MIC of either compound, revealing few significant changes in bacterial susceptibility.

Caracterização molecular das toxinas em staphylococcus aureus isolados de leite e queijo de colalho em Municípios da Região Agreste de Pernambuco / Molecular characterization of toxins in Staphylococcus aureus isolated from milk and coalho cheese of municipalities from the Agreste region of Pernambuco

O leite e o queijo têm um importante papel nutricional para o homem e quando consumidos sem o devido cuidado higiênico-sanitário, podem causar doenças devido à presença de microrganismos patogênicos, com destaque para Staphylococcus aureus. O envolvimento desta bactéria na epidemiologia das doenças veiculadas por alimentos decorre de sua alta prevalência e do risco de produção de enterotoxinas termoestáveis responsáveis pela intoxicação alimentar. S. aureus também produz outras toxinas de interesse humano como a toxina-1 da síndrome do choque tóxico, responsável pela síndrome do choque tóxico em humanos e as toxinas esfoliativas, causadoras da síndrome da pele escaldada. Alguns grupos vêm aplicando análises moleculares do gene da coagulase para subdividir os S. aureus baseando-se no polimorfismo deste gene. A resistência bacteriana a antibióticos é um sério problema para a Saúde Pública, pois bactérias resistentes podem ser transmitidas ao homem através de alimentos contaminados. Este trabalho teve como objetivos isolar S. aureus obtidos de leite e queijo de coalho da região Agreste de Pernambuco; caracterizar o perfil de sensibilidade antimicrobiana; pesquisar a presença dos genes responsáveis pelas toxinas; investigar a expressão dos genes toxigênicos nos S. aureus e correlacionar a tipagem molecular pelo gene da coagulase com os genes toxigênicos. Os perfis de sensibilidade demonstraram que a maioria dos S. aureus foi sensível a vancomicina, sulfa + trimetoprim e enrofloxacina e alguns isolados demonstraram alto índice de resistência aos demais antibióticos estudados. A análise do gene coa nos 94 isolados de S. aureus permitiu distribuílos em dois coagulotipos: coa1= ~750pb e coa2= ~1000pb sugerindo a disseminação de clones restritos na região Agreste de Pernambuco. Entre os 88 S. aureus positivos pela PCR, foram encontrados os genótipos seg, seh, sei, seg + seh, seg + sei, seg + sej, seh + sei, seg + seh + sei, seg + sei + sej e seg + seh + sei + sej. Estes resultados sugerem a existência de uma variação geográfica na distribuição dos S. aureus portadores dos genes toxigênicos. Destes, 20 isolados foram selecionados para análise pela RT-PCR. Os transcritos obtidos em 12/20 foram seg, seh, sei, seg + seh, seg + sej e seg + sei + sej, coa1 e coa2. Os isolados de S. aureus positivos pela PCR e RT-PCR examinados neste estudo expressaram os genes responsáveis pelas enterotoxinas apresentando potencial para causarem quadros de intoxicação alimentar.