Diversity of Listeria monocytogenes strains of clinical and food chain origins in Belgium between 1985 and 2014

Listeriosis is a rare but severe disease, mainly caused by Listeria monocytogenes. This study shows the results of the laboratory-based surveillance of Listeriosis in Belgium over the period 1985-2014. Besides the incidence and some demographic data we present also more detailed microbiological and molecular characteristics of human strains isolated since 2000. The strains from the latter period were compared to food and animal strains from the same period. Our study shows that different food matrices were commonly contaminated with L. monocytogenes presenting the same PFGE profile as in patient's isolates. Since 1985, we observed a significant decrease in incidence of the Materno-Neonatal cases (from 0.15 to 0.04 cases /100,000 inhabitants-year), which is probably to be attributed to active prevention campaigns targeting pregnant women. Despite the strengthening of different control measures by the food industry, the incidence of non-Materno-Neonatal listeriosis increased in Belgium (from 0.3 to 0.7 cases /100,000 inhabitants-year), probably due to the rise of highly susceptible patients in an aging population. This significant increase found in non-Materno-Neonatal cases (slope coefficient 7.42%/year, P< 0.0001) can be attributed to significant increase in incidence of isolates belonging to serovars 1/2a (n = 393, slope coefficient 6.62%/year, P< 0.0001). Although resistance to antimicrobials is rare among L. monocytogenes isolates, a trend to increasing MIC values is evident with chloramphenicol, amoxicillin, tetracycline and ciprofloxacin. We show that fluoroquinolone resistance is not linked to chromosomal mutations, but caused by a variety of efflux pumps. Our study also shows that huge majority of known underlying pathologies (426 out of 785 cases) were cancers (185/426, 43.1%) and haematological malignancies (75/185, 40.5%). Moreover the risk population is susceptible to low levels of contamination in food stressing the need of prevention campaigns specifically targeting these persons

Cybertools improve reaction time in open heart surgery

Objective: Head-up displays allow the surgeons to simultaneously view the patient and the patient's vital parameters (ECG, blood pressure, etc.) using vision-through over a wireless net, potentially enhancing the speed, accuracy and safety of surgical decisions. The aim was to assess surgical reaction time to AFIB, bigeminy, trigeminy, VTACH, and VFIB and concentration during a surgical intervention comparing standard and cyber tools monitoring. Methods: Using a patient simulator for beating heart surgery able to emulate heart signals and motion (arrhythmias) a group of surgeons performed coronary bypass procedures. Measurements of reaction time, efficiency of the surgeon, time elapsed to display a coronary angiography in a realistic surgical environment were taken. Results: The duration to accomplish the experiment is not different between groups (cyber vs. standard) reaction times, however, are significantly decreased for cyber by a mean of 33%. There is also a measured time difference for displaying a coronary angiography within the head-up display as compared to a remote console. Conclusions: During surgery, modern cyber tools allow for significant improvements of reaction time and concentration due to real time access to vital informatio

Prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii in Belgian wildlife

De Craeye, S., Speybroeck, N., Baert, K., Ajzenberg, D., Dardé, M.L., Collinet, F., Tavernier, P., Van Gucht, S., Dorny, P., Dierick, K

Exposure assessment of foodborne pathogens in pork in Belgium

The aim of this study was to assess the exposure of the most incident foodborne pathogens in the Belgian meat production chain. The prevalence of Salmonella, Campylobacter and Listeria monocytogenes were evaluated in carcasses (swabs), retail cuts, minced meat and meat products of pork. The investigation was made each year since 1997, using official methods from the Ministry of Public Health for Salmonella and Campylobacter and the Vidas Listeria monocytogenes method. More than 10 % of each matrix were contaminated with Salmonella. For minced meat and meat products, the contamination rate were respectively round 20 % and 3 – 6 % for Listeria monocytogenes. Under 5 % of minced meat samples were positive for Campylobacter. For minced meat, the contamination has also been assessed according to the location of sampling (agreed, low capacity establishments or retail level). The characterisation of bacterial species allows the comparison between meat and human isolates