Introduction: The study objective was to develop and evaluate a new TaqMan multiplex real-time PCR method for Salmonella, L. monocytogenes, and verotoxigenic Escherichia coli (VTEC) detection in slaughtered animal carcasses.Material and Methods: The procedure included an enrichment step, DNA extraction, and two multiplex real-time PCRs. The first PCR detected the invA and hly genes of Salmonella and L. monocytogenes respectively, the second the vtx1, vtx2, and eae genes of VTEC.Results: The validation of this method resulted in 100% relative sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy as compared to the reference ISO methods. The limit of detection per swab sample was established at 1 cfu for Salmonella and L. monocytogenes and 2 cfu for VTEC. The authors analysed 265 slaughterhouse-collected swabs from cattle, pig, and poultry carcasses. Among 125 from cattle, 51 were positive for VTEC, 29 for Salmonella, and 1 for L. monocytogenes. Among swabs from pig carcasses (n = 95), three, two, and one sample were positive for these pathogens respectively. None of the microorganisms tested for was identified in 45 samples of poultry origin.Conclusion: The obtained results showed that the method developed can rapidly identify the main bacterial pathogens that may contaminate carcasses of food-producing animals.

In recent years a growing demand for ratite meat, including ostrich, emu, and rhea has been observed all over the world. However, consumers as well as the meat industry still have limited and scattered knowledge about this type of meat, especially in the case of emu and rhea. Thus, the aim of the present review is to provide information on technological and nutritional properties of ostrich, emu, and rhea meat, including carcass composition and yields, physicochemical characteristics, and nutritive value. Carcass yields and composition among ratites are comparable, with the exception of higher content of fat in emu. Ostrich, emu, and rhea meat is darker than beef and ratite meat acidification is closer to beef than to poultry. Ratite meat can be recognised as a dietetic product mainly because of its low level of fat, high content of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), favourable n6/n3 ratio, and high iron content in comparison with beef and chicken meat. Ratite meat is also rich in selenium, copper, vitamin B, and biologically active peptides such as creatine (emu) and anserine (ostrich), and has low content of sodium (ostrich). The abundance of bioactive compounds e.g. PUFA, makes ratite meat highly susceptible to oxidation and requires research concerning elaboration of innovative, intelligent packaging system for protection of nutritional and technological properties of this meat.

Introduction: Chlamydia psittaci is a gram-negative obligate intracellular pathogen of birds. Poultry infections lead to economic losses and can be transmitted to humans. No vaccine is available and the bacterium-host cell interaction is not completely understood. Replicating bacteria cause pneumonia, but C. psittaci can also be non-replicating and persistent inside the cytoplasm of avian cells. RT-qPCR provides insight into the molecular pathogenesis of both active replicating and persistent Chlamydia psittaci in birds, but requires identification of stably expressed reference genes to avoid biases. Material and Methods: We investigated the expression stability of 10 C. psittaci candidate reference genes for gene expression analysis during normal growth and penicillin-induced persistence. C. psittaci Cal10 was cultured in HeLa229 and RNA was extracted. The expression level of each candidate was examined by RT-qPCR and Cq values were analysed using geNorm. Results: The genes tyrS, gidA, radA, and 16S rRNA ranked among the most stably expressed. The final selected reference genes differed according to the bacterial growth status (normal growth versus persistent status), and the time points selected during the duration of the normal chlamydial developmental cycle. Conclusion: The study data show the importance of systematic validation of reference genes to confirm their stability within the strains and under the conditions selected.

Objective: This study evaluated the occurrence and antimicrobial susceptibility profile of Salmonella species isolated from various poultry products including chicken meat, poultry eggs, poultry bird's drinking water, and poultry feed. Materials and methods: A total of 79 samples comprising of chicken meat (n=20), egg shell (n=15), poultry egg contents (n=18), drinking water (n=14), and poultry feed (n=12) were bacteriologically and microscopically analyzed for the isolation of Salmonella species. Results: Overall, this study reported a high prevalence of Salmonella species (62%) from various poultry products especially in poultry (chicken) meat and poultry egg contents where the percentage occurrence of Salmonella species was 100% and 20.4% respectively. The antibiogram conducted on the Salmonella species isolated from the various poultry samples reveal that all the isolates were multi-drug resistant to more than 50% of the tested antibiotics especially to tetracycline, gentamicin, tobramycin, nitrofurantoin and imipenem. However, most of the Salmonella species were also found to be highly susceptible to ceftriaxone, cefotaxime, ertapenem and ceftazidime. It was also observed in this study that the highest level of resistance to the tested antibiotics was recorded in Salmonella species isolated from poultry meat samples. Conclusion: Salmonellosis due to the consumption of contaminated or infected poultry products could pose serious public health problem to the general public if allowed. Thus, poultry farms and other poultry product outlets should be operated under sanitized conditions that ward-off the incidence of foodborne pathogens such as Salmonella. The use of antibiotics as growth promoting agents and prophylaxis in the production of poultry birds in this region should be discouraged and ndash; since such practices allowed drug-resistant bacteria to emerge and spread in the community. [J Adv Vet Anim Res 2016; 3(4.000): 353-359]

Colibacillosis is animportant disease affecting the poultryindustry in many countries, caused bythe Avian Pathogenic E. coli (APEC):it manifests as various clinical signs. Itcontributes significantly to economicloss for poultry farmers as a result ofhigh mortality and morbidity in poultry.To overcome this, antibiotics have beenwidely used to eliminate E. coli infectionin poultry farms in recent years. Treatmentwith antibiotics has been considered as avital regimen to control E. coli infectionat the farm level for many years. However,high frequency of antibiotic resistance ofE. coli isolates from chicken has becomethe centre of attention due to public healthimportance. The aim of the present study isto determine the multidrug resistant profilesof E. coli strains isolated from chicken.E. coli isolates obtained from clinicalcases were re-identified and classified byconventional methods. Multidrug resistantprofiles against 13 different antibiotics of125 E. coli isolates were determined byusing disk diffusion method accordingto Clinical Laboratory Standard Institute(CLSI). Antibiogram revealed that 81.6%of the E. coli isolates showed multidrugresistant profiles to different antibiotics.Most of the E.coli isolates were highlyresistant to erythromycin (52.8%), followedwith tetracycline (52.0%), spectinomycin(39.2%), trimethoprim (38.4%) andflumequin (37.6%). Out of 125 isolatestested, 19.2% were resistant to more thaneight antibiotics, with one isolates found tobe multidrug resistant to most of antibioticsexcept polymyxin B. These findings alsodemonstrated that most of the isolateswere susceptible to antibiotics commonlyused for E.coli infections treatment inpoultry with lowest resistant score againstpolymyxin B (92.8%) and colistin (92.0%).Moderate resistant profiles were observedtowards amoxycilin (25.6%), apramycin(16%), kanamycin (8.8%) and streptomycin(8.0%). High percentage of multidrugresistance was found among the E. coliisolated from chicken as an indicator tomore serious problems in animal health.Therefore, continuous surveillance of antibiotic resistance profiles in chicken andother food animals is crucial to ensure foodchain safety

Stress is commonly used to describe the detrimental effectsof a variety of conditions surrounding animals on their health performance. Environmental stress causes an increasein oxidative stress and an imbalance in antioxidant status. Oxidative damage increases in stressed poultry when the plasma antioxidant vitamins and minerals such as vitamin C, E, folic acid, and zinclevels declined. Stress factors in birds involve many elements of the transport processes which may be detrimental to the birds. These factors include alteration in atmospheric temperature, poor handlingby man, removal of feed and water (starvation), high ambient temperature (AT) and relative humidity (RH). Other factors incude vaccination, disease conditions such as coccidiosis, novelty,confinement, motion, noise, microthermal core within the vehicle and the use of inappropriate vehicles. Live birds of all ages are being transported mainly by roads to their various destinations and across different ecological zones throughout the year. Mortality increaseswith journey length. The adverse effects of these factors and their combinations may range from mild discomfort and aversion to death. This review was aimed at providing comprehensive information on the role of vitamin C in combating stress factors in poultry with the view of exploring its potentials for future research undertaking.Information compiled in this review were obtained from search engines such as Elsevier, Pubmed, Springer, Medline, Science Direct, Google Scholar, and a library search for articles published in peerreviewedjournals. 100 to 200 mg/kg feed of vitamin C is capable of converting stress factors in poultry and thereby improving the productivity.