RESUMO
In this study, a preliminary food quality and safety assessment was performed on organic and cage-free egg samples marketed in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, that were analyzed concerning veterinary drug and pesticide residues using high performance and ultra performance liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry. The polyether ionophore salinomycin was detected in two organic egg samples (25% of the organic samples), one with an estimated concentration even higher than the maximum permissible amount of 3 µg kg-1 established for conventional eggs by the European Commission. The other sample presented a concentration higher than the limit of detection of 0.3 µg kg-1, but lower than the lowest calibration level of 1.5 µg kg-1. Regarding pesticide residues, spiroxamine, pirimiphos, mephosfolan and pyraclostrobin were identified at residual levels below the lowest calibration level of 4.5 µg kg-1, except for one organic egg sample, presenting 8.3 µg kg-1 of spiroxamine. Spiroxamine was identified in 62% of the assessed samples. These findings indicate that non-conformities were found even with a limited number of samples, impacting the confidence in the quality of organic and cage-free alternative systems in egg production. The hazard index (HI) approach demonstrated that chemical food safety might be at risk, since a mixture of the detected analytes may pose a risk for children up to 27 kg, through egg consumption.
RESUMO
Biotherapics are homeopathic remedies prepared from organic products that are chemically undefined and can be used for treatment of diseases like influenza. There are several classes of biotherapics and, among these, there are some called "living biotherapics" or "Roberto Costa?s Biotherapics". This study aimed to compare the cellular and biochemical effects of biotherapics prepared from intact influenza virus diluted in water and the one obtained from the same viral sample inactivated by ethanol 70% (v / v), both in the potencies of 12x and 30x. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analyses were performed on both preparations to assess the integrity of viral particles, which showed that ethanol 70% (v/v) induced a complete denaturation of viral particles. In contrast, the integrity of virus particles was preserved when water was used as the biotherapic solvent. Cellular and biochemical alterations induced by the preparations on MDCK cells were analyzed and compared with those induced by respective controls (water 30x-treated and untreated cells). Cellular viability analyzed by MTT method showed statistically significant differences (p <0.05) in MDCK cells treated with intact biotherapic for 5 (3 stimuli) and 30 (18 stimuli) days in comparison with untreated control. TEM analysis did not show significant cellular changes when the different experimental groups were compared. The enzymatic activity of phosphofructokinase 1 (PFK), an important enzyme in the glycolytic pathway, presented a statistically significant increase (p <0.05) after 30 days of treatment when compared to control groups. The results obtained suggest that inactivation of viral sample with ethanol 70% induces lysis and disruption of viral particles. In addition, preliminary results indicated that treatment with intact biotherapic seems to induce higher variations on MDCK cells responses when compared to inactivated-biotherapic-treated cells. Further analyses are ongoing, including scanning electron microscopy and quantification of the number of mitosis, in order to elucidate the mechanisms involved with biochemical and cellular responses induced by theses biotherapics.(AU)
