In this study 130 bulk tank milk samples which were delivered to the Pegah Pasturisation Factory inMashhad were collected randomly during the summer months. Samples were firstly enriched in modifiedtrypticase soy broth containing novobiocin, followed by plating onto sorbitol MacConkey agar supplementedwith cefixime and potassium tellurite for isolation of Escherichia coli O157:H7. Consequently ...

Shiga toxins are the main virulence factors of a group of Escherichia coli strains [Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC)] that cause severe human diseases, such as haemorrhagic colitis and haemolytic-uraemic syndrome. The Shiga toxin family comprises several toxin subtypes, which have been differentially related to clinical manifestations. In addition, the phages that carry the Shiga toxin gene...

By conducting a molecular characterization of Corynebacterium diphtheriae strains in Australia, we identified novel sequences, nonfunctional toxin genes, and 5 recent cases of toxigenic cutaneous diphtheria. These findings highlight the importance of extrapharyngeal infections for toxin gene-bearing (functional or not) and non-toxin gene-bearing C. diphtheriae strains. Continued surveillance is...

A total of 108 S. aureus isolates from 16 major hospitals located in 14 different provinces in China were characterized for the profiles of 18 staphylococcal enterotoxin (SE) genes, 3 exfoliatin genes (eta, etb and etd), and the toxic shock syndrome toxin gene (tsst) by PCR. The genomic diversity of each isolate was also evaluated by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), multilocus sequence ...

BACKGROUND: Campylobacteriosis is one of the most commonbacterial intestinal disorders of humans in many countries.A wide range of domestic and wild bird species have been identifiedas natural reservoirs. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this studywas to determine the Campylobacter spp from pet birds andscreen the determined Campylobacters for presence of virulencecytolethal distending toxin (cdt) genes....

Different environmental nitrogen sources play selective roles in the development of cyanobacterial blooms and noxious effects are often exacerbated when toxic cyanobacteria are dominant. Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii CS-505 (heterocystous, nitrogen fixing) and Raphidiopsis brookii D9 (non-N₂ fixing) produce the nitrogenous toxins cylindrospermopsin (CYN) and paralytic shellfish toxins (PSTs), ...

Periodic monitoring of Staphylococcus aureus characteristics in a locality is imperative as their drug-resistant variants cause treatment problem. In this study, antibiograms, prevalence of toxin genes (sea-see, seg-ser, seu, tsst-1, eta, etb, and etd), PFGE types, accessory gene regulator (agr) groups, and ability to form biofilm of 92 S. aureus Thailand clinical isolates were investigated. Th...

Background: The skin of patients with atopic dermatitis has a high susceptibility to staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) colonization known to produce toxins with super antigen (SAgs) activity which are a family of potent immune-stimulatory exotoxins and may aggravate AD. The aim of this research was to evaluate the ro...

Campylobacter jejuni produces a toxin called cytolethal distending toxin (CDT). Knowledge of the prevalence and homogeneity of Campylobacter sp. cdt genes is incomplete. In this work, we identified four PCR primer pairs that collectively amplified cdt genes in all of the C. jejuni and Campylobacter coli strains tested. Restriction analyses of the cdt PCR products showed clear differences betwee...