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Aims: Vibrio parahaemolyticus is a marine and estuarine bacterium that has been documented as the causative agent of food-borne outbreak worldwide. The aim of this study was to confirm the identification of presumptive V. parahaemolyticus isolates to the species level by using PCR targeted to the outer membrane protein regulation operon gene (toxR) and to investigate antibiotic resistance, plasmid profile, and the main core virulence genes of thermostable direct hemolysin (tdh) and tdh-related hemolysin (trh). Methodology and results: A total of 56 presumptive isolates of V. parahaemolyticus were isolated from seawater collected during year a 2010 sampling pilot study performed along the Arabian Gulf coast of the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. The purpose of this study was to confirm the identification of presumptive V. parahaemolyticus isolates to the species level by using PCR targeted to the toxR gene and to investigate antibiotic resistance, plasmid profile, and the main core virulence genes of tdh and trh. The toxR-specific PCR assay revealed that a total of 30 out of 56 isolates tested positive for V. parahaemolyticus. None of the 30 strains of the toxR gene were tested positive for tdh and trh genes. All (100%) of isolates were highly resistant to amikacin, cefuroxime, ampicillin, ticarcillin, cefaclor (80%), and tetracycline (70%). The multiple antibiotic resistance (MAR) index was measured for all 16 antimicrobial agents, and the high ranged from 0.25 to 0.56. Among the isolated V. parahaemolyticus, 22 out of 30 strains contained plasmid DNA bands ranging in size from 1.5 to 55 kb and no correlation was observed between the plasmid profiles and antibiotic resistance patterns. Conclusion, significance and impact of study: The results obtained in this study indicate that V. parahaemolyticus is present in the coastal environment of the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia.

To date, cholera has cycle the world seven times through the seven pandemic cycles that has affected tens of millions of people. The objective of this study was to determine the presence and density as well as the antibiotic resistance profile of Vibrio cholerae isolated from catfish (Pangasius hypohthalamus). From the combination of the Most Probable Number-Polymerase Chain Reaction-plating on TCBS agar methods, V. cholerae was detected in 32 samples and V. cholerae O139 was detected in 7 samples, with a density ranging between <3.0 to 75.0 MPN/g and <3.0 to 9.3 MPN/g respectively. The results obtained in this study indicate that V. cholerae will continue to be a major healthcare burden, as the pathogen can be transferred from the aquatic environment to the catfish and the consumption of catfish by humans will present a route of exposure to V. cholerae. Proliferation of antibiotic and multiantibiotic resistant bacteria is a public health threat worldwide. Results of antimicrobial susceptibility investigation of V. cholerae isolates collected from catfish reported in this study will establish an important baseline data. All the V. cholerae isolates were multiantibiotic resistant towards the ten antibiotics tested, including 6 isolates that were resistant to all ten antibiotics and 38 antibiotic resistance patterns. The MAR index values of 0.2 to 1.0 indicate that the isolates were exposed to high risk sources in the environment. Taken together, the information on the prevalence and antibiotic resistance of V. cholerae indicate that catfish consumption presents a potential risk to human health and highlight the need for ongoing epidemiological and antimicrobial resistance surveillance.

The revolution of agriculture through biotechnology have produced large-scale of genetically modified crops which brought up a controversy on the safety usage of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). It has been implemented globally that all GMO products and its derived ingredients should have regulations on the usage and labelling. Thus, it is necessary to develop methods that allow rapid screening of GMO products to comply with the regulations. This study employed a reliable and flexible multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method for the rapid detection of transgenic elements in genetically modified soy and maize along with the soybean LECTIN gene and maize ZEIN gene respectively. The selected four common transgenic elements were 35S promoter (35S); Agrobacterium tumefaciens nopaline synthase terminator (NOS); 5-enolypyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (epsps) gene; and Cry1Ab delta-endotoxin (cry1Ab) gene. Optimization of the multiplex PCR methods were carried out by using 1% Roundup Ready TM Soybean (RRS) as the certified reference material for soybean that produced fourplex PCR method detecting 35S promoter, NOS terminator, epsps gene and soybean LECTIN gene and by using 1% MON810 as the certified reference material for maize that produced triplex PCR method detecting 35S promoter, cry1Ab gene and maize ZEIN gene prior to screening of the GMO traits in various food products and animal feeds. 1/9 (11.1%) of the animal feed contained maize and 1/15 (6.7%) of the soybean food products showed positive results for the detection of GMO transgenic gene. None of the maize food products showed positive results for GMO transgenic gene. In total, approximately 4% of the food products and animal feed were positive as GMO. This indicated GMOs have not widely entered the food chain. However, it is necessary to have an appropriate screening method due to GMOs' unknown potential risk to humans and to animals. This rapid screening method will provide leverage in terms of being economically wise, time saving and reliable.

Consumption of chicken offal is common and famous among Malaysians as it is often served as one of the side dishes with rice. Chicken offal can be a potential source of Listeria monocytogenes because slaughtered animals are recognized as a reservoir for foodborne pathogens. L. monocytogenes is a dangerous foodborne pathogen which can cause severe foodborne listeriosis with high fatality rate. This study aimed to determine the efficacy of different washing pre-treatment and cooking methods to reduce L. monocytogenes in artificially contaminated chicken offal. All the washing pre-treatments (dip treatment in different water sources and wash treatment with different water flow rates) showed significant reduction of the pathogen (p<0.05) when the inoculated samples were treated from 2 mins onwards. Washing the inoculated samples under the water flow rate of 2 L/min was the most effective way to reduce the number of L. monocytogenes (approximately 1.97 log reduction after washing for 10 mins). For heat treatment study, deep-frying was the most effective cooking method followed by boiling and pan-frying to reduce L. monocytogenes where all L. monocytogenes cells (7.91 log10 CFU/g) were killed within 45 s under deep-frying treatment. Overall, the study indicated that washing under running tap water (2 L/min) and deep-frying was effective in reducing and controlling the microbial populations during food preparation. The findings from this study can serve as a safe preparation step and cooking guideline. It is necessary to implement safe steps in food handling practices among food handlers to minimize the risk of foodborne infection.