Differentiation of probiotic and environmental Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains in animal feed.

AIMS: To establish an identification system for probiotic Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains based on artificial neural network (ANN)-assisted Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy to improve quality control of animal feed. METHODS AND RESULTS: The ANN-based system for differentiating environmental from probiotic S. cerevisiae strains comprises five authorized feed additive strains plus environmental strains isolated from different habitats. A total of 108 isolates were used as reference strains to create the ANN. DHPLC analysis and δ-PCR were used as reference methods to type probiotic yeast isolates. The performance of the FTIR-ANN was tested in an internal validation using unknown spectra of each reference strain. This validation step yielded a classification rate of 99·1 %. For an external validation, a test data set comprising 965 spectra of 63 probiotic and environmental S. cerevisiae isolates unknown to the ANN was used, resulting in a classification rate of 98·2 %. CONCLUSIONS: Our results demonstrate that probiotic S. cerevisiae strains in feed can be differentiated successfully from environmental isolates using both genotypic approaches and ANN-based FTIR spectroscopy. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: FTIR-based artificial neural network analysis provides a rapid and inexpensive technique for yeast identification both at the species and at the strain level in routine diagnostic laboratories, using a single sample preparation.

Comparative efficacy and safety of the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs nimesulide and diclofenac in patients with acute subdeltoid bursitis and bicipital tendinitis.

The efficacy and tolerability of nimesulide, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) 100 mg twice daily were compared with diclofenac 75 mg b.i.d. in short term treatment of acute shoulder (acute subdeltoid bursitis and bicipital tendinitis) in adult patients. In this double-blind (double-dummy), randomised, parallel group study over two weeks, 122 patients were included. The Mann-Whitney statistics revealed therapeutic equivalence of both treatments with a slight superiority for nimesulide. The tolerability of nimesulide, judged by investigators and patients and analysed statistically, was superior to that of diclofenac. Thus, the benefit-risk relationship was better for the test drug than for the reference drug.