No outbreaks of Salmonella among humans traced back to Swedish pork during 1996 and 1997

In Sweden all Salmonella strains isolated from animals have to be reported as well as all human cases of salmonellosis. All isolates are subjected to serotyping and for S. Typhimurium and S. Enteritidis phage typing is done. Since 1995 continuos monitoring programmes aimed at documenting the prevalence of Salmonella are in force (2). Prevalence in herds, slaughterhouses and cutting plants has been documented during the last four years and the overall prevalence has been proven to be less than 0.1 %, 95% confidence interval (3-6). In this study Salmonella findings reported during a two-year period, 1996 and 1997, has been revised in detail in order to reveal connections of human cases related to pork

A retrospective study of salmonellosis in Swedish pig herds

Sweden has achieved efficient control of salmonella in the food production sector. Due to this control, red and white meat produced in Sweden can today be claimed to be virtually free from salmonella (I). The different parts of the control programmes have been described in detail elsewhere (2,3). When joining the European Union in 1995, Sweden acquired additional guarantees regarding salmonella when importing live animals and fresh meat, based on the control programme (5)

Reactivities towards enterobacterial LPS in pig sera from herds in a Salmonella non-endemic region

In Sweden legislation concerning extensive restrictions in herds found Salmonella positive has been in operation for four decades. All findings of Salmonella isolates among animals are compulsory notifiable and reports of Salmonella findings have been published continuously, first time 1957 (I) and last time 1998 (2). Bacteriological prevalence in herds, slaughter-houses and cutting plants has been documented during the last four years and the overall prevalence has been proven to be less than 0.1 %, 95% confidence interval, (2-5). In addition to the national programme Sweden has as well participated in the European project SALINPORK investigating the prevalence and developing strategies to control and reduce Salmonella (6). In this connection sera (3050 in total) from 61 Swedish pig herds were tested in the Dartish surveillance system which is based on serological testing rather than bacteriology as in Sweden. A significant part of these sera had moderate responses (20-70 OD% ). When applying I 0 OD% as cut-off value, 59% of the herds had more than one sera-reactor, and at 40 OD% as cut-off value 7% of the herds had more than one sera-reactor. The mean OD% for all individual pigs in the 61 herds was 4.4, with the standard deviation of 6.7

Harvest epidemiology of Salmonella contamination in EU pig slaughterhouses

Pigs are most often healthy carriers of Salmonella generally without showing any symptoms of disease. Salmonella bacteria are primarily located in the gastrointestinal tract of the subclinical infected pigs and the epidemiology of Salmonella at the slaughterhouse level is first of all a question of direct or indirect fecal contamination of pigs or carcasses (I). During transport and lairage, the proportion of subclinically infected pigs that excrete Salmonella may be increased considerably. Consequently, the risk of cross-contaminating non-infected pigs is also increased (2). During the slaughter process, carcasses may be contaminated or cross-contaminated by manual or mechanical handling

Herd-level risk factors for the introduction and spread of Salmonella in pig herds

Salmonella has been identified in all stages of pork production. Effons to decrease the Salmonella burden on society should be targeted at all levels of the production chain. One of the greatest challenges for Salmonella free or controlled pork production lies in identifying effective measures that can be taken at the herd-level

PCR-DGGE assessment of the bacterial diversity of breast milk in women with lactational infectious mastitis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Infectious mastitis is a common condition during lactation and in fact, represents one of the main causes leading to a precocious weaning. The number of studies dealing with lactational mastitis is low and, up to now, the etiological diagnosis is frequently made on the basis of unspecific clinical signs. The aim of this study was to investigate the microbial diversity of breast milk in 20 women with lactational mastitis employing culture-dependent and culture-independent (PCR-DGGE) approaches.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Breast milk samples were cultured in different media to investigate the presence of bacteria and/or yeasts, and a total of 149 representative isolates were identified to the species level by 16S rRNA gene PCR sequencing. The microorganisms recovered were compared with those found by PCR-DGGE analysis. To identify the DGGE profiles two reference markers of different microbial species were constructed. Sequence analysis of unknown bands was also performed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Staphylococci were the dominant bacterial group and <it>Staphylococcus epidermidis </it>was the dominant species. In a lower number of samples, other bacteria (mainly streptococci and a few gram-negative species) were also identified. Globally, PCR-DGGE results showed a good correlation with those obtained by culture-based methods. However, although DNA bands corresponding to different lactic acid bacteria were detected, such bacteria could not be isolated from the milk samples.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Staphylococci seem to be the main etiological agents of human lactational mastitis. The combined use of culture and molecular techniques allowed a better characterization of the bacterial diversity in milk from women suffering from infectious mastitis. Our results suggest that this condition could be the result of a disbiotic process where some of the bacterial species usually present in human milk outgrow (staphylococci) while others disappear (lactobacilli or lactococci).</p

Factorial validity of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) in clinical samples: A critical examination of the literature and a psychometric study in anorexia nervosa

There is extensive use of the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) in research and clinical practice in anorexia nervosa (AN), though it is not empirically established in this population. This study aims to examine the factorial validity of the TAS-20 in a Portuguese AN sample (N = 125), testing four different models (ranging from 1 to 4 factors) that were identified in critical examination of existing factor analytic studies. Results of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) suggested that the three-factor solution, measuring difficulty identifying (DIF) and describing feelings (DDF), and externally oriented thinking (EOT), was the best fitting model. The quality of measurement improves if two EOT items (16 and 18) are eliminated. Internal consistency of EOT was low and decreased with age. The results provide support for the factorial validity of the TAS-20 in AN. Nevertheless, the measurement of EOT requires some caution and may be problematic in AN adolescents.Center for Psychology at the University of Porto, Portuguese Science Foundation (FCT UID/PSI/00050/2013) and EU FEDER through COMPETE 2020 program (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007294info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio