Foodborne pathogens have been associated with severe and complicated diseases. Therefore, these types of infections are a concern for public health officials and food and dairy industries. Regarding the wide-spread multidrug resistant (MDR) and extensively drug resistant (XDR) foodborne pathogens such as Salmonella Enteritidis (S. Enteritidis), new and alternative therapeutic approaches are urgently needed. Therefore, we investigated the antimicrobial, anti-virulence, and immunostimulant activities of a stable formulation of thymol as thymol nanoemulsion in an in vivo approach. Notably, treatment with 2.25% thymol nanoemulsion led to a pronounced improvement in the body weight gain and feed conversion ratio in addition to decreases in the severity of clinical findings and mortality percentages of challenged chickens with XDR S. Enteritidis confirming its pronounced antimicrobial activities. Moreover, thymol nanoemulsion, at this dose, had protective effects through up-regulation of the protective cytokines and down-regulation of XDR S. Enteritidis sopB virulence gene and interleukins (IL)-4 and IL-10 cytokines as those hinder the host defenses. Furthermore, it enhanced the growth of gut Bifidobacteria species, which increases the strength of the immune system. For that, we suggested the therapeutic use of thymol nanoemulsion against resistant foodborne pathogens. Finally, we recommended the use of 2.25% thymol nanoemulsion as a feed additive for immunocompromised individuals as well as in the veterinary fields.

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Summary Methicillin‐resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has been shown to be the predominant life‐threatening pathogen in Egypt. MRSA is a major cause of severe healthcare‐associated (HA) infections. During the last decades, the incidence of community‐associated (CA) MRSA infections has a complex epidemiology arising from the circulation of different strains in the general population. Moreover, livestock‐associated (LA) MRSA emerged recently becomes an emerging threat to public health. Therefore, it is important to illuminate the differences between CA‐, HA‐ and LA‐MRSA to shed light on their genetic diversity and evolution. This study presents the first data on analysing the correlation between CA‐, LA‐ and HA‐MRSA using antibiogram typing, molecular characteristics and antimicrobial resistance and virulence genes’ profiles. Overall, HA‐MRSA strains tended to be multidrug resistant and less virulent than both LA‐ and CA‐MRSA strains. Importantly, CA‐MRSA strains had a high homology with each of HA‐ and LA‐MRSA. However, no similarity was observed between HA‐ and LA‐MRSA. Our findings suggest that the epidemiological changes in genetic behaviour between HA‐ and LA‐MRSA are due to the presence of CA‐MRSA confirming that CA‐MRSA has created a public health crisis worldwide.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a major pathogen associated with severe morbidity and mortality and poses a significant threat to public health worldwide. The genetic diversity based on sequence types of MRSA strains was illustrated in previous studies; meanwhile, the diversity along with the predominant sequence type, especially in Egypt, remains unknown. The purpose of the current study was to determine the diversity of the predominant MRSA clone ST239-MRSA (n = 50) isolated from different hosts and clinical samples and to illustrate the correlation between the resistance patterns, toxin genes, and the genetic background in Port-said and El-Sharkia Governorates, Egypt. The ST239-MRSA clone was analyzed by phenotypic antibiotyping and various genotypic assays comprising SCCmec, agr, spa, coa, and coa-RFLP in addition to toxin gene profiles. Most of the analyzed strains (40/50, 80%) were multidrug resistant (MDR), belonged to SCCmec-III, agr-I, and coa genotype I, and harbored sea and pvl genes. A negative correlation between the toxin gene profiles and antimicrobial resistance was recorded. Meanwhile, the correlation between the toxin gene profiles and the genetic background was not observed in this study. Although ST239-MRSA strains belonged to a single sequence type, they exhibited a high degree of phenotypic and genotypic diversity, indicating weak clonality and adaptability. With such diversity, it is assumed that these strains may have undergone different evolutionary processes during transmission events among and/or within a single host or tissue niche.

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