First Report in China on the Identification and Drug Sensitivity of Mycobacterium elephantis Isolated from the Milk of a Cow with Mastitis.

OBJECTIVE: In this study, milk from a cow with mastitis was analyzed to determine the presence of mycobacterial infection. Milk quality and security problems pertaining to the safe consumption of dairy products were also discussed in this study. METHODS: Milk was preprocessed with 4% NaOH. Then, mycobacteria were isolated from the milk sample on L-J medium. The isolate was identified using multiple loci Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and multi-locus sequence analysis with 16S rRNA, sodA, hsp65, and ITS genes. The drug sensitivity of the isolate to 27 antibiotics was tested through alamar blue assay. RESULTS: Smooth, moist, pale yellow colonies appeared on the L-J medium within a week after inoculation. Based on the results of multiple loci PCR analysis, the isolate was preliminarily identified as non-tuberculous mycobacteria. The 16S rRNA, SodA, hsp65, and ITS gene sequences of the isolate exhibited 99%, 99%, 99%, and 100% similarities, respectively, with those of the published reference strains of Mycobacterium elephantis (M. elephantis). The drug sensitivity results showed that the strain is resistant to isoniazid, p-aminosalicylic acid, and trimesulf but is sensitive to ofloxacin, rifampicin, amikacin, capreomycin, moxifloxacin, kanamycin, levofloxacin, cycloserine, ethambutol, streptomycin, tobramycin, rifabutin, ciprofloxacin, linezolid, cefoxitin, clarithromycin, and minocycline. CONCLUSION: To the best of our knowledge, this study is initially to report the isolation of M. elephantis from the milk of a cow with mastitis in China.

Effect of heavy metal-solubilizing microorganisms on zinc and cadmium extractions from heavy metal contaminated soil with Tricholoma lobynsis.

The macrofungus, Tricholoma lobynsis, was chosen to remedy Zn-Cd-Pb contaminated soil. To enhance its metal-extracting efficiency, two heavy metal resistant microbes M6 and K1 were applied owing to their excellent abilities to solubilize heavy metal salts. The two isolated microbial strains could also produce indole acetic acid (IAA), siderophore and solubilize inorganic phosphate, but neither of them showed 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate deaminase activity. The strains M6 and K1 were identified as Serratia marcescens and Rhodotorula mucilaginosa based on 16S rDNA and ITS sequence analysis respectively. Pot experiment showed that spraying to T. lobynsis-inoculated soil with M6 and K1 respectively could increase total Cd accumulations of this mushroom by 216 and 61%, and Zn by 153 and 49% compared to the uninoculated control. Pb accumulation however, was too low (<1 mg kg(-1)) to be determined. The results illustrated that special microbes and macrofungi can work together to remedy polluted soil as plant and plant growth promoting microbes do, probably because of excellent metal-accumulating abilities of macrofungi and IAA-siderophore production, phosphate solubilization abilities of the assisted-microbes. This kind of macrofungi-microbe interaction can be developed into a novel bioremediation strategy.

Incidence of organochlorine pesticides in soils of Shenzhen, China.

To determine the incidence of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in soil in a rapid urbanization region, soil samples from various land use types in Shenzhen were collected in winter, 2007. The concentration of dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethanes (DDTs) and hexachlorocyclohexanes (HCHs) ranged from non-detected to 149 ng g(-1) and 19 to 88 ng g(-1), respectively. The highest levels of OCPs were observed in soil from traffic and industry areas, reflecting that intensive human disturbance make the soil pollution accumulation more disperse. HCHs and DDTs profiles revealed that the sources were associated mainly with lindane and technical DDTs, respectively, while HCHs in the soil of Shenzhen might originate from both recent and historical sources. The loss of OCPs by soil erosion will enter surface runoff and impose impact on the water environment. Non-dietary exposure estimation indicates that children were the most sensitive group. The average daily exposure to OCPs for males was more serious than for females. Non-dietary exposure to DDTs and HCHs in residential blocks of Shenzhen were far below the acceptable daily intake recommended by the Food and Agriculture Organization/World Health Organization.