Antimicrobial activities of six essential oils commonly used as condiments in Brazil against Clostridium perfringens.

Despite recent advances in food production technology, food-borne diseases (FBD) remain a challenging public health concern. In several countries, including Brazil, Clostridium perfringens is among the five main causative agents of food-borne diseases. The present study determines antimicrobial activities of essential oils of six condiments commonly used in Brazil, viz.

High prevalence of Neisseria meningitidis hypervirulent lineages and emergence of W135:P1.5,2:ST-11 clone in Southern Brazil.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to characterize Neisseria meningitidis strains causing invasive disease in Rio Grande do Sul (RS), during 2003-2005, monitoring the occurrence of hypervirulent lineages, as well as to determine the diversity of PorA VR types for the corresponding isolates and clinical specimens.

Methods: Isolates and clinical specimens were characterized by MLST and PorA VR typing.

Results: This study demonstrated high prevalence of some hypervirulent lineages and emergence of new ones, including the emergence of lineages W135:P1.

Evaluation and improvement of real-time PCR assays targeting lytA, ply, and psaA genes for detection of pneumococcal DNA.

The accurate diagnosis of pneumococcal disease has frequently been hampered not only by the difficulties in obtaining isolates of the organism from patient specimens but also by the misidentification of pneumococcus-like viridans group streptococci (P-LVS) as Streptococcus pneumoniae. This is especially critical when the specimen comes from the respiratory tract. In this study, three novel real-time PCR assays designed for the detection of specific sequence regions of the lytA, ply, and psaA genes were developed (lytA-CDC, ply-CDC, and psaA, respectively).