Highly Resistant Yersinia enterocolitica Isolated from Dairy Based Foods in Lebanon

Yersinia is small rod shaped, gram negative coccibacilli known as a food borne pathogen that may cause intestinal and systemic diseases known as yersiniosis. It has been reported that it may be transmitted by eating contaminated dairy foods.  This study aims at evaluating the presence of Yersinia enterocolitica in Lebanese three dairy based foods which include Kishk, Shankleesh and Baladi cheese and reporting their susceptibilities to commonly used antimicrobial agents. In total, sixteen Y. enterocolitica isolates were recovered and subjected to relevant biochemical tests and finally identified by API system.  Eleven of those isolates were from Baladi cheese, three from Shankleesh and two from Kishk. The API results confirmed their identity, and were then subjected for susceptibility testing against: chloramphenicol (30µg), trimethoprim/ sulfamethoxazole (1.25µg+23.75µg), gentamicin (10µg), ciprofloxacin (5µg), nalidixic acid (30µg), Kanamycin (30µg) and streptomycin (10µg). Surprisingly, all the tested Y. enterocolitica isolates showed high rates of resistance to all the antimicrobials used with highest resistance to kanamycin (81.2%) and streptomycin (87.5%). The data showed that the antimicrobial resistance levels exceeded by far all the levels reported elsewhere. Based on the data, it may be concluded that dairy based foods in Lebanon, especially cheese that is prepared under unaccepted conditions, not abiding by proper hygienic practices. This might be the cause of a public health hazard, as cheese might act as a potential vehicle for the transmission of many resistant bacterial pathogens to human consumers. For this reason, it is advisable to use strict conditions in cheese processing to reduce the hazards that may be involved with its consumption

Characterization of a canarypox virus from an outbreak among canaries (Serinus canaria domesticus) in Lebanon

A canarypox outbreak resulted in the death of about 50% of canaries (Serinus canaria domesticus) in several breeding farms in Lebanon. Infected birds showed thickened eye lid and skin scab-like lesions at the beak, foot and caudal regions and died 5–6 days post disease symptoms onset. Out of seven sick birds that were autopsied for gross pathology evaluation, one bird demonstrated turbid airsacs with absence of any lesions in the trachea, oesophagus, liver and lung. Histopathological examination showed hyperplasia, heterophils infiltration and Bollinger body formation in the skin of five out of the seven autopsied canaries. Hyperplasia and infiltration of heterophils were also observed in the airsacs of one bird. PCR analysis of specimens taken from the skin and feet, targeting the fpv167 gene of the canarypox virus, was positive for all of the analyzed canaries. PCR analysis also revealed that two birds had concurrent infection with Mycoplasma gallisepticum. Sequencing and alignment of the amplified fpv167 gene of the canarypox showed 100% similarity with the Iranian canary pox isolate IR/H913/14. Smuggling of pet birds through the borders should be strictly controlled and biosecurity measures must be adequately applied to control the circulation of the two identified pathogens

Influence des passages du virus de l'Influenza-H9N2 par des organismes aviaires et mammifères sur l'adaptabilité de sa pathogénicité et sur les mutations impliquées

COMPIEGNE-BU (601592101) / SudocSudocFranceF

Impact of competitive non-protective antigens in a booster killed vaccine on seroconversions to protective antigens of Newcastle disease virus in chickens

This study was designed to examine the impact of competitive non-protective antigens in a bivalent killed vaccine of Newcastle disease virus and infectious bronchitis (IB) virus on seroconversions against protective fusion protein of Newcastle disease (ND) virus (NDV), in free-range layers primed by live ND-clone 30 and IB-H120 vaccines. The experimental design included two free-range layer farms in which sera of randomly chosen layers were collected on two occasions from each of the two farms namely: at the time of administration of the killed booster vaccine (23 weeks of age) and three weeks later. The Western immunoblotting technique was used to react the individual pooled sera collected at different times from each farm with antigens used in priming, namely those of the ND-clone 30 virus and the IB-H120 virus. The optical density bands formed by reactions were compared statistically between seroconverted antibodies at 23 weeks with those of layers aged 26 weeks. The killed booster vaccine offered a significant seroconversion on both farms to the non-protective L-protein (248.0 kDa) of NDV and on one of the two farms to the non-protective NDV-matrix protein (40.0 kDa) (p<0.05). However, seroconversion to the protective fusion protein of NDV (60 kDa) failed on both farms (p<0.05). In addition, on one farm, a statistical significance was revealed by the killed booster vaccine seroconversion to non-protective IBV-nucleocapsid protein (510 kDa) and, on the other farm, to another non-protective IBV-glycoprotein (28.0 kDa) (p<0.05). The impact of competitive seroconversions to non-protective antigens and seroconversion failures to low molecular weights of NDV protective fusion protein is discussed

Distribution of demographic and health variables among study groups.

<p>P-values in bold are significant. For age, numbers indicate mean and standard deviation (SD); for all other variables, numbers indicate N(%).</p