Identification and characterization by 16S rDNA analysis of viable bacterial colonies isolated from oral medicines based on inactivated or lysed pathogenic bacteria.

Oral bacterial immunomodulators are based on inactivated or lysed pathogenic bacterial cells. The safety of these products for consumers critically depends on the effectiveness of procedures used for pathogen inactivation. In a market survey in Switzerland we tested 26 lots of three different immunomodulators for the presence of any remaining culturable cells.

Comparative evaluation of four large-volume RNA extraction kits in the isolation of viral RNA from water samples.

The quality of the RNA extraction system plays a crucial role for the detection of viruses in water or environmental samples. In the present study we investigated the detection limit, the efficiency and the presence of eventually co-extracted inhibitors by comparing four commercially available large scale (>or=1 ml) viral RNA extraction methods (QIAamp Viral RNA Mini Kit in combination with preconcentration by Centricon YM-100 [Centricon-QIAamp], QIAamp UltraSens Virus Kit, NucliSens Isolation Kit and NucleoSpin RNA Virus F). A 1 ml 50 mM glycine (pH 8.

Detection and characterization of pestivirus contaminations in human live viral vaccines.

In view of the use of potentially contaminated foetal calf serum (FCS) in cell cultures pestiviruses may be present in live viral vaccines. Thirty-six lots of human live viral vaccines produced by three manufacturers were tested for the presence of pestiviruses. Bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDV) RNA was detected in 33% of the vaccine lots.