Prevalence and Antimicrobial Resistance of Salmonella serotypes Isolated from Poultry Meat in Japan.

The prevalence and antimicrobial susceptibility of Salmonella in 512 poultry meat samples collected from retail stores and poultry-processing plants in Japan between 2015 and 2016 were investigated. The results showed that 55.9% of poultry meat samples were contaminated with Salmonella, with nine different serotypes represented. The most frequent serovar was Salmonella enterica serovar Infantis, followed by S. Schwarzengrund, together accounting for 78.2% of the isolates. High antimicrobial resistance rates were observed against tetracycline (80.9% S. Infantis and 83.9% S. Schwarzengrund), streptomycin (53.4% S. Infantis and 76.8% S. Schwarzengrund), and kanamycin (33.6% S. Infantis and 82.1% S. Schwarzengrund). All tested isolates were susceptible to colistin and ciprofloxacin. In addition, a high proportion (65.6% of S. Infantis, 85.7% of S. Schwarzengrund) of Salmonella isolates were resistant to two or more antimicrobials, and 22 and 17 different resistance patterns were observed in the two strains, respectively. The predominant antibiotic resistance patterns were streptomycin-tetracycline (32/131, 24.4% of S. Infantis) and streptomycin-kanamycin-tetracycline-sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim (43/112, 38.4% of S. Schwarzengrund). These data indicate that multidrug-resistant S. Infantis and S. Schwarzengrund have spread among poultry meat in Japan.

Neural- and endocrine control of flight muscle degeneration in the adult cricket, Gryllus bimaculatus.

Neural- and endocrine mechanisms controlling degeneration of a dorsal longitudinal flight muscle, M112a, have been studied in adult Gryllus bimaculatus (Orthoptera: Gryllidae). Decapitation completely prevented muscle degeneration. Implantation of a pair of corpora allata or injection of juvenile hormone III into decapitated crickets caused muscle degeneration. Denervation of M112a resulted in reduction of muscle mass compared with that in sham-operated crickets. Denervation of M112a in decapitated crickets, however, did not affect muscle mass. Birefringence and ultrastructure of M112a showed an obvious regional difference in the onset of degeneration. Fibrillar structures of M112a always disappeared from the ventral to dorsal part. Distribution of axon terminals of motor neurons and mechanical responses to the motor nerve stimuli showed that M112a is composed of five motor units with similar twitch properties. When M112a was fully denervated, regional differences in degeneration disappeared. Partial denervation resulted in denervated muscle fibers losing birefringence earlier than innervated fibers. These results suggest that juvenile hormone causes breakdown of flight muscles, and neural factors control degeneration of flight muscles to some extent under the presence of the juvenile hormone.