Background and Aim: In Egypt, there is a scarcity of recent data on trichinellosis in pigs and humans. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the epidemiological profile and risk factors associated with Trichinella spiralis infection as well as to assess the effectiveness of the trichinoscope and digestion technique in diagnosing trichinellosis. Materials and Methods: Data were collected on 33812 pigs slaughtered during a year at the Al-Basateen abattoir, Cairo Governorate, Egypt. The slaughtered pigs had already been examined by trichinoscope in the abattoir. The diagnostic effectiveness technique was randomly conducted on 170 pork muscle samples, which were examined using the digestion technique. Furthermore, 90 serum samples from high-risk individuals in Qena and Sohag Governorates, Upper Egypt, were analyzed using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results: The investigation revealed that the overall prevalence was 1.06% in pigs by trichinoscope. Of the examined 170 samples, 2.35% and 3.35% were found to harbor Trichinella by trichinoscope and artificial digestion, respectively. Trichinella was identified as T. spiralis using a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique. A significant relationship was affirmed between the prevalence of trichinellosis and the sex and age of the examined pigs. Likewise, for the first time, there was a considerable seasonal trend in the prevalence of Trichinella with the maximum infection, which was observed during Autumn (1.18%). The prevalence of trichinellosis in humans was 10%, with a significant association with age. Conclusion: Our findings are intended to serve as a starting point for developing effective preventive and control measures for trichinellosis (as application of Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) in pig farms, stop feeding pigs on garbage as well as, preventing illegal slaughter of pigs outside the slaughterhouses). It also fortifies the establishment of the digestion technique because of its high specificity and sensitivity, although it is difficult to apply to a large number of samples.

Objective:The aim of the present work was to investigate the mutual role that may be played by the served dairy food and food handlers in the transmission of methicillin- and vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and coagulase-negative Staphylococci to patients who were hospitalized in Qena City, Egypt.Materials and Methods:A total of 210 samples including 90 dairy food samples which offered to the patients in the hospital, 60 nasal and hand swabs from food handlers working in the hospital, and 60 nasal and diarrheal swabs from patients suffering from diarrhea were investigated for the presence of coagulase-positive S. aureus and coagulase-negative Staphylococci, then isolates were screened for methicillin and vancomycin resistance phenotypically and genotypically. 16s rRNA gene sequencing was employed to construct the neighbor-joining tree.Results:Unlike food samples, both coagulase-positive S. aureus and coagulase-negative Staphylococci occurred in human samples. Methicillin- and vancomycin-resistant coagulase-negative Staphylococci could be detected in 41.7% & 20.8%, 68% & 31.9%, and 81.3% & 55.2% of isolates obtained from dairy food, food handlers, and patients’ samples, respectively. Whereas 81% & 64.3%, and 75.4% & 38.6% of coagulase-positive S. aureus obtained from food handlers and patients’ samples exhibited resistance to methicillin and vancomycin, respectively. Phenotypic resistance was confirmed molecularly through detection of mecA and vanA genes.Conclusion:A significant role can be played by food and food handlers in the transmission of methicillin- and vancomycin-resistant Staphylococci to patients, which has been proved in this study through the close phylogenetic relation between S. epidermidis isolated from food, food handlers, and patients’ diarrheal samples.

Key words: B. cereus, Dairy desserts, Diarrhea and virulence genesB. cereus is an opportunistic foodborne pathogen that is found in most of the cases to be responsible for food-borne outbreaks. This study aimed to detect and quantify B. cereus in dairy desserts that locally manufactured and sold in different localities in Qena city, also to take an image about the role that is may be played by these products in causing foodborne illness by detection of B. cereus in diarrheal samples collected from the same regions from which the food samples are obtained. A total of 120 samples of ice-cream, mahallbia, rice and milk and diarrhea (30 samples each) were examined for presence of B. cereus. The results obtained in this study revealed detection of B. cereus in 55.6 and 40% of dairy dessert and diarrhea samples, respectively. B. cereus could be counted in 30, 60 and 76.7% of ice-cream, mahallbia and rice and milk samples with mean values of 3.5× 10 4 ±1.5× 10 4 , 6.3×10 5 ±1.9×10 5 and 1.4×10 7 ±6.6× 10 6 CFU/g, respectively. The possibility of involvement of theses dairy dessert samples in food poisoning cases was reinforced especially after detection the virulence genes of B. cereus isolates. It was found that 80, 44 and 24% of B. cereus isolates recovered from food samples harbored nhe, hbl and cytK genes, receptively including 55.6, 33.3 and 0% for ice-cream isolates; 83.3, 50 and 44.4% for mahallbia isolates and 86.9, 43.5 and 17.4% for rice and milk isolates. While for diarrhea samples, 75% of B. cereus isolates obtained from diarrhea samples carried nhe and cytK, respectively and 50% were found to be positive for hbl gene. Neither of the isolates that obtained from dairy dessert nor those obtained from diarrhea samples was positive for presence of ces gene.

S almonellosis remains a major public health issue worldwide with a huge global burden of morbidity and mortality especially in developing countries (Sodagari et al., 2020). It is estimated to cause 93.8 million human infections and 300,000 deaths annually (WHO, 2020) besides causing a major challenge in the global poultry industry. It is well known that human salmonellosis is associated with the consumption of different kinds of food, in particular poultry and poultry products (Favier et al., 2013). Other routes of infection between individuals are represented by the fecal-oral route and contact with infected pets through contamination of food and drink by the hands, thus disease outbreaks can occur (Munck et al., 2020).

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