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The rising global population continues to threaten the world’s food security. The discovery of new technologies to produce food of nutritional and functional properties is urgently needed. One beneficial food to humans of known nutritional value is the prebiotic levan. To address the problem, the present work is aimed at isolating levansucrase enzyme-producing microorganisms from traditional fermented food in Thailand. Bacterial colony morphology was observed for mucoidal consistency on culture plates. Isolated colonies were characterized morphologically by gram staining methods. Dinitrosalicylic acid (DNS) and thin-layer chromatography (TLC) reported the highest microbial enzyme activity of 8.51 IU/ml at 12 hours via hydrolysis and frutotransferase activities. Structural characterization of levan via Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and 1H and 13C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy showed β-(2,6)-fructofuranose linkages. The highest enzyme activity was exhibited by bacterium B-6 identified as Bacillus siamensis NR 11274.1 based on the 16s rDNA gene sequence analyses. Thus, the isolated bacterium from the traditional food was confirmed to produce levansucrase enzyme of high industrial importance for the synthesis of levan as a functional food.

Zoonotic infections caused by bacterial pathogens are considered as major threat to humans and the aquaculture industry. This problem triggered the search for various natural products from plants, microorganisms, animal tissues, and secretions to determine the presence of metabolites that may be of potential antimicrobial effects against infectious agents. However, limited attempts have been conducted to elucidate the potential use of freshwater fish mucus in against pathogens. Here, the antimicrobial activity of mucus of economically-important freshwater fish species in the Philippines: Oreochromis niloticus (tilapia), Clarias batrachus (catfish), and Channa striata (snakehead fish) was investigated against fish and human pathogens. The pooled fish mucus was extracted with succeeding centrifugation and filtration. The acidic mucus extracts were tested for antimicrobial-inhibitory effects and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) by agar-overlay diffusion and microbroth plate dilution method, respectively. The results showed that all fish mucus extracts exhibited antimicrobial effects against test pathogens with catfish exhibiting the highest inhibitory effects against Pseudomonas aeruginosa (p = 0.096), Klebsiella pneumoniae (p = 0.000), Enterococcus faecalis (p = 0.665), Micrococcus luteus (p = 0.000), Aeromonas hydrophila (p = 0.000), Staphylococcus aureus (p = 0.000), Escherichia coli (p = 0.000), and Serratia marcescens (p = 0.000) as compared to the broad-spectrum antibiotic control, Cefoperazone. Interestingly, catfish mucus revealed inhibitory effects against Gram-positive S. aureus and M. luteus at the lowest concentration (1:4 dilution). The present findings revealed the potential antimicrobial use of freshwater fish mucus against medically-important pathogens.

Objective: To identify the prevalence of soil-transmitted helminthiasis (STH) among school-age children in the Cagayan Valley, the Philippines, assess their level of awareness on the disease, and determine predisposing factors of the disease. Methods: A total of 478 Grades III-V school-age children in Pamplona and Sanchez-Mira School Districts in the Cagayan Valley answered the questionnaire assessing their knowledge, attitude, and practices on STH, subjected to anthropometric measurements, and provided faecal samples for parasitologic assessment (direct smear, Kato-Katz, and formol-ether concentration techniques). Results: The participants of the study, with 55.86% females, were 8 to 14 years old. Their nutritional status was assessed ‘normal’ (84.31%), ‘severely wasted’ (6.49%), ‘wasted’ (5.23%), ‘overweight’ (2.72%), and ‘obese’ (1.26%). The prevalence of infection with at least 1 STH species was 25.99% in Pamplona and 19.40% in Sanchez- Mira. Overall, the prevalence of heavy intensity was 7.11% for Ascaris lumbricoides and 1.67% for Trichuris trichiura. All hookworm infections had light intensities. The majority of the school-age children had a low score in the KAP test. In knowledge of STH, ‘stunted growth as a symptom of infection’ was associated with a lower risk of Ascaris lumbricoides infection (OR 0.448; 95% CI 0.212, 0.945; P=0.035) while ‘playing with soil as a mode of transmission’ was associated with an increased risk of Ascaris lumbricoides infection (OR 2.067; 95% CI 1.014, 4.212; P=0.046). In attitude towards STH, ‘I think I have intestinal worm now’ was associated with a higher risk of Ascaris lumbricoides infection (OR 1.681; 95% CI 1.061, 2.662; P=0.027). Conclusions: The prevalence rate of Ascaris lumbricoides among the school-age children in the Cagayan Valley shows the need to further intensify intervention in the area to meet the threshold set by the World Health Organization. The identified predictors of infection, which concerns the school-age children's knowledge and attitude toward STH, can be used in augmenting intervention programs in the future.