Clostridium botulinum produces botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs), highly potent substances responsible for botulism. Currently, mathematical models of C. botulinum growth and toxigenesis are largely aimed at risk assessment and do not include explicit genetic information beyond group level but integrate many component processes, such as signalling, membrane permeability and metabolic activity. In t...

Sixteen different types of sous vide-processed products were evaluated for safety with respect to nonproteolytic group II Clostridium botulinum by using challenge tests with low (2. 0-log-CFU/kg) and high (5.3-log-CFU/kg) inocula and two currently available predictive microbiological models, Food MicroModel (FMM) and Pathogen Modeling Program (PMP). After thermal processing, the products were s...

Growth, development, virulence and secondary metabolism in fungi are governed by heterotrimeric G proteins (G proteins). A Gβ-like protein called Gib2 has been shown to function as an atypical Gβ in Gpa1-cAMP signaling in Cryptococcus neoformans. We found that the previously reported CpcB (cross pathway control B) protein is the ortholog of Gib2 in Aspergillus nidulans and Aspergillus fumigatus...

Background and Objective:Outbreak of food-borne diseases has become more and more important these days and using natural food preservers with high durability is under debate. Vegetative essence is a type of food preserver and many studies have been performed on their antimicrobial effects. The purpose of this study was to investigate antibacterial effects of lavender essence on...

Tetanus is an important disease which created by tetanospasmin toxin of Clostridium tetani. In this study we surveyed six important factors including LF, KF, MLD, pH, OD and total protein assay of Harvard 52 (H52), G5 (HG5) and 49205 (H49205) strains of the bacterium to determine which of them were more suitable for use in vaccine production. The mentioned strains were seperatedly reactivated i...

Growth behavior of Clostridium botulinum type E beluga was studied in Acipenser persicus granular caviar treated with 5% NaCl, 5%NaCl plus 0.3% boric acid and 0.4%borax and 5%NaCl plus 0.15% methyl paraben incubated at temperatures -2, 5 and 15 °C for 224 days. The initial number of inoculated bacterial spore was 5.1×104 cfu/g caviar in each treated sample. The number of bacterial spores in sam...

Refrigerated processed foods of extended durability such as cook-chill and sous-vide foods rely on a minimal heat treatment at 70 to 95°C and then storage at a refrigeration temperature for safety and preservation. These foods are not sterile and are intended to have an extended shelf life, often up to 42 days. The principal microbiological hazard in foods of this type is growth of and toxin pr...

OBJECTIVES Sepsis affects nearly 1 million people in the United States per year, has a mortality rate of 28-50% and requires more than $20 billion a year in hospital costs. Over a quarter century of research has not yielded a single reliable diagnostic test or a directed therapeutic agent for sepsis. Central to this insufficiency is the fact that sepsis remains a clinical/physiological diagnosi...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has established standards for the composition and shelf stability of various readyto-eat meat products. These standards may include product pH, moisture:protein ratio, and water activity (aw) values. It is unclear how closely these standards are based on the potential for pathogen growth or toxin production. Because the vacuum packaging used on most ready-to-e...