Decontamination of a BSL3 laboratory by hydrogen peroxide fumigation using three different surrogates for Bacillus anthracis spores.

Aims: Two independent trials investigated the decontamination of a BSL3 laboratory using vaporous hydrogen peroxide and compared the effect on spores of Bacillus cereus, Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus thuringiensis as surrogates for Bacillus anthracis spores, while spores of Geobacillus stearothermophilus served as control.

Methods And Results: Carriers containing 1·0 × 10(6) spores were placed at various locations within the laboratory before fumigation with hydrogen peroxide following a previously validated protocol. Afterwards, carriers were monitored by plating out samples on agar and observing enrichment in nutrient medium for up to 14 days.

Characterization of Yersinia using MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry and chemometrics.

Yersinia are Gram-negative, rod-shaped facultative anaerobes, and some of them, Yersinia enterocolitica, Yersinia pseudotuberculosis, and Yersinia pestis, are pathogenic in humans. Rapid and accurate identification of Yersinia strains is essential for appropriate therapeutic management and timely intervention for infection control. In the past decade matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry (MS) in combination with computer-aided pattern recognition has evolved as a rapid, objective, and reliable technique for microbial identification.

The genome of a Bacillus isolate causing anthrax in chimpanzees combines chromosomal properties of B. cereus with B. anthracis virulence plasmids.

Anthrax is a fatal disease caused by strains of Bacillus anthracis. Members of this monophyletic species are non motile and are all characterized by the presence of four prophages and a nonsense mutation in the plcR regulator gene. Here we report the complete genome sequence of a Bacillus strain isolated from a chimpanzee that had died with clinical symptoms of anthrax.

Identification of Bacillus anthracis by using matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry and artificial neural networks.

This report demonstrates the applicability of a combination of matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry (MS) and chemometrics for rapid and reliable identification of vegetative cells of the causative agent of anthrax, Bacillus anthracis. Bacillus cultures were prepared under standardized conditions and inactivated according to a recently developed MS-compatible inactivation protocol for highly pathogenic microorganisms. MALDI-TOF MS was then employed to collect spectra from the microbial samples and to build up a database of bacterial reference spectra.

MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry compatible inactivation method for highly pathogenic microbial cells and spores.

Identification of microorganisms, specifically of vegetative cells and spores, by intact cell mass spectrometry (ICMS) is an emerging new technology. The technique provides specific biomarker profiles which can be employed for bacterial identification at the genus, species, or even at the subspecies level holding the potential to serve as a rapid and sensitive identification technique in clinical or food microbiology and also for sensitive detection of biosafety level (BSL) 3 microorganisms. However, the development of ICMS as an identification technique for BSL-3 level microorganisms is hampered by the fact that no MALDI-TOF (matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight) compatible inactivation procedure for microorganisms, and particularly for bacterial endospores, has been evaluated so far.

Effects of ethanol on cytokine production after surgery in a murine model of gram-negative pneumonia.

Background: Both alcohol abuse and surgery have been shown to impair immune function. The frequency of postoperative infectious complications is 2- to 5-fold increased in long-term alcoholic patients, leading to prolonged hospital stay. Following surgery, an increase in interleukin (IL)-6 has been shown to be associated with increased tissue injury and interleukin 1-(IL-10) is known to represent an anti-inflammatory signal.

Characterization of Bacillus anthracis-like bacteria isolated from wild great apes from Cote d'Ivoire and Cameroon.

We present the microbiological and molecular characterization of bacteria isolated from four chimpanzees and one gorilla thought to have died of an anthrax-like disease in Côte d'Ivoire and Cameroon. These isolates differed significantly from classic Bacillus anthracis by the following criteria: motility, resistance to the gamma phage, and, for isolates from Cameroon, resistance to penicillin G. A capsule was expressed not only after induction by CO(2) and bicarbonate but also under normal growth conditions.

Evaluation of different methods to discriminate Bacillus anthracis from other bacteria of the Bacillus cereus group.

Aims: To evaluate different methods that are useful for rapid and definitive discrimination of Bacillus anthracis from other bacteria of the Bacillus cereus group in environmental samples like letters claimed to contain anthrax spores.

Methods And Results: Characterized strains and bacteria from environmental samples were analysed by microbiological and molecular methods (PCR and restriction analysis). Environmental isolates often shared several microbiological features with B.

[Efficient killing of anthrax spores using aqueous and alcoholic peracetic acid solutions].

We analysed the sporicidal effect of different concentrations of aqueous and alcoholic peracetic acid (PAA) solutions on anthrax spores in suspension and germ carrier tests. In activation of anthrax spores in suspension assays was achieved in less than 2 min using 1% PAA solution and in less than 3 min using 0.5% PAA solution, respectively.

Rapid and sensitive identification of pathogenic and apathogenic Bacillus anthracis by real-time PCR.

Bacillus anthracis spores have been shown to be an efficient biological weapon and their recent use in bioterrorist attacks has demonstrated the need for rapid and specific diagnostics. A TaqMan real-time PCR for identification of B. anthracis was developed, based on the two plasmids, pX01 and pX02, both of which are necessary for pathogenicity, as well as on the chromosomally encoded rpoB gene.

[The relationship of plasmids from environmental Yersinia isolates and the virulence plasmid of enteropathogenic Yersinia strains].

The human pathogenic strains of Yersinia harbour a conserved plasmid carrying the Yop virulon. The virulence plasmid of Yersinia enterocolitica strains belonging to the serogroups O:3 and O:9 were used as probes to detect homologous sequences in plasmids of "avirulent" Yersinia strains. "Avirulent" Yersinia strains (Y.

Evaluation of a systemic antibiotic treatment of toxic puerperal metritis in dairy cows.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and economic efficiency of a systemic treatment of toxic puerperal metritis in dairy cows with ceftiofur. Cows with abnormal vaginal discharge at a postpartum examination (d 4 to 6 after calving) and a rectal temperature > or = 39.5 degrees C were assigned to three treatment groups.

Treponema brennaborense sp. nov., a novel spirochaete isolated from a dairy cow suffering from digital dermatitis.

A novel Treponema species was isolated from an ulcerative lesion of a cow suffering from digital dermatitis (DD), a disease which causes painful ulcerations along the coronary band. Among other anaerobic bacteria, high numbers of spirochaetes have been regularly found in DD lesions. Here data are presented of a spirochaete isolated from a DD ulcer.

Characterization of plasmid regions of foodborne Yersinia enterocolitica biogroup 1A strains hybridizing to the Yersinia enterocolitica virulence plasmid.

The aim of our study was to find out if plasmids of foodborne Yersinia enterocolitica biogroup 1A strains harbour genes related to the virulence genes located on the virulence plasmid pYV of Yersinia enterocolitica. The foodborne strains were isolated from pork, as pigs are considered as an important reservoir for enteropathogenic Y. enterocolitica 0:3 and 0:9 strains.

Spirochetes from digital dermatitis lesions in cattle are closely related to treponemes associated with human periodontitis.

Digital dermatitis (DD), first described in 1974 by Cheli and Mortellaro (R. Cheli and C. Mortellaro, p.

Comparison of plasmids of strains of Yersinia enterocolitica biovar 1A with the virulence plasmid of a pathogenic Y. enterocolitica strain.

The plasmid content of apathogenic Y. enterocolitica biovar 1A strains was determined and the plasmids were compared with the virulence plasmid of a pathogenic Y. enterocolitica strain.

[Electron microscopic detection of spirochetes in dermatitis digitalis of cattle].

In typical Dermatitis digitalis (D.d.) lesions, spirochaete-like bacteria with variations in spiralization were revealed by electron microscopy.

[Immunostimulating effect of culture filtrates of Yersinia enterocolitica].

Application of sterile culturing supernatant of Yersinia (Y.) enterocolitica (tested serovars were 03 and 08) caused significantly accelerated transplant rejection in mice of various inbreeding strains. Action correlated with dosage (r = -0.

[Brucella clearance as a sensitive method for the detection of cross reactions of Brucella abortus with Yersinia enterocolitica 03, 06, 09 and Salmonella urbana and Salmonella abony].

Determination of the Brucella clearance rate has proved to enable assessment of Brucella immune reaction in rat, even after vaccination with Yersiniae and Salmonellae. Vaccination with Yersinia (Y.) enterocolitica O6 and O9 produced 95 per cent of "high responders", whereas 65 per cent of "high responders" and 25 per cent of "non-responders" were recorded in the wake of O3.

[Staphylococcus aureus infection in chickens in industrialized poultry units. 2. Microbiological studies: Staphylococcus aureus and other pathogens].

Checks were applied to 3,213 dead or ill broiler chickens and broiler parents for the purpose of elucidating enzootic or epizootic Staphylococcus aureus infections which had occurred on three industrialised poultry units. Rates of Staphylococcus aureus detection and identification declined by the following order: staphylococcal septicaemia (100 per cent), dermatitis (75.42 per cent), arthritis and tenosynovitis or osteomyelitis (64.

[Reproduction of Brucella titers in swine using experimental infection with Yersinia enterocolitica, serotypes 0:9 and 0:6].

Measurable Brucella titres were produced by slow agglutination, slow agglutination at 57 degrees C (heat test), and complement fixation reaction with Brucella antigen in infection experiments with gilts in which Yersinia enterocolitica Serotypes 0:9 and 0:6 were used. Slow agglutination gave brucellosis titres up to 1:1280 and titres against Yersinia enterocolitica, Serotype 0:9, up to 1:20480. The antibody titres stayed persistent throughout the 80 days of the experiment.

[Brucella titers in swine caused by Yersinia enterocolitica, serotype 0:9].

Antibody to Brucella abortus developed in two thirds of all gilts kept on a pig breeding station. Systematic tests taken for the purpose of detecting clinical symptoms and of isolating Brucella were negative. however, Yersinia (Y.

[The Corynebacterium pyogenes infection of cattle. 2. Tenacity of Corynebacterium pyogenes].

Some common agents were tested for their effectiveness against Corynebacterium pyogenes. The pathogen proved most susceptable to Wofasteril. All germs were killed within ten minutes by a 0.