Foodborne parasitic diseases in China:A scoping review on current situation,epidemiological trends,prevention and control

Objective:Foodborne parasitic diseases,although with a declining overall incidence rate,are still endangering local public safety.This review aims to describe the current situation and epidemiological trends of foodborne parasitic diseases in China in order to explore possible reasons contributors to its high prevalence in some areas,and propose strategies for prevention and control accordingly.Methods:A scoping review was conducted by searching Pub Med,CNKI,Wanfang,CQVIP,Embase,and the Cochrane Library using search formula"foodborne parasitic diseases(or foodborne parasites)"AND"China".Studies on foodborne parasitic diseases in China were considered,but only articles in English or Chinese published between January 1980 and June 2020 were retrieved.Included studies were screened according to the eligibility criteria:1)diseases consistent with the WHO definition of foodborne parasitic diseases;2)the food carriers were included in the WHO food classification;3)data related to epidemiology,pathogenicity,and prevention and control;4)Foodborne parasitic diseases cases or outbreaks in China.Results:A total of 111 out of 665 records were included and summarized.The prevalence of clonorchiasis,angiostrongyliasis,echinococcosis,trichinellosis and cysticercosis was still increasing although the infection rate of soil-transmitted nematodes has substantially decreased in recent years.Diverse eating habits,close contact with animals,and urbanization were contributing factors to the increase.Conclusions:Foodborne parasitic diseases remain an important public health issue in China with the progress of economic globalization and food diversification.We should manage to raise public awareness about the prevention and control of foodborne parasitic diseases,improve health and safety inspections,as well as public health practice.

Data-Driven Prediction of Foodborne Disease Pathogens

In recent years,foodborne diseases have become one of the most Data analysis technology has been widely used in the field of public health,and greatly facilitates the preliminary judgment of medical staff.Foodborne pathogens,as the main factor of foodborne diseases,play an important role in the treatment and prevention of foodborne diseases.However,foodborne diseases caused by different pathogens lack specificity in clinical features,and the actual clinical pathogen detection ratio is very low in reality.This paper proposes a data-driven foodborne disease pathogen prediction model,which paves the way for early and effective patient identification and treatment.Data analysis was implemented to model the foodborne disease case data.The best model achieves good classification accuracy for Salmonella,Norovirus,Vibrio parahaemolyticus,Staphylococcus aureus,Shigella and Escherichia coli.With the patient data input,the model can conduct rapid risk assessment.The experimental results show that the data-driven approach reduces manual intervention and the difficulty of testing.

Food quality and safety in Singapore:microbiology aspects

BACKGROUND:Singapore’s status as a first world island city-state which relies chiefly on food imports to meet the demand for consumption presents unique challenges in terms of microbial food safety and quality.Despite the efforts of the Ministry of Health in Singapore,in conjunction with the Agri-Food&Veterinary Authority of Singapore and the National Environment Agency actively collaborate together to promote safety in Singapore,foodborne diseases are still a major public health issue.OBJECTIVE:The aim of the review was to summarize the various foodborne diseases reported in Singapore in the past few years as well as to give an account of all the currently available microbiological findings indicating safety and quality of poultry,vegetables,fruits,and seafood sold in Singapore.

Studies on bactericidal efficacy of pumpkin(Cucurbita moschata Duchesne)peel

Objective:To explore the in vitro antibacterial potential of the peel of Cucurbita moschata Duchesne(tropical pumpkin)(C.moschata)against human pathogenic bacteria.Methods:In the present study,dichloromethane(DCM),methanol(MEOH)and aqueous extracts of C.moschata peel were examined for in vitro antibacterial potency against eight bacterial strains i.e.Bacillus cereus,Burkholderia cepacia,Escherichia coli,Enterococcus faecalis,Staphyloccocus aureus,Pseudomonas aerugenosa,Vibrio alginolyticus,Vibrio parahaemolyticus using Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion susceptibility and broth micro-dilution methods.Results:DCM extract of pumpkin peel exhibited the maximum zone of inhibition against Staphyloccocus aureus(21 mm)whereas aqueous extract of pumpkin peel revealed the least zone of inhibition against Escherichia coli(8 mm).MEOH extract gave maximum zone of inhibition against Pseudomonas aerugenosa(19 mm).Broth micro-dilution method showed minimum inhibitory concentration for the DCM extract against Burkholderia cepacia at 6.25 mg/mL.The minimum bactericidal concentrations were also determined to know the nature of all extracts.DCM and MEOH extracts exhibited bactericidal nature to all bacterial strains except for the Vibrio alginolyticus.The minimum bactericidal concentrations values exhibited bactericidal nature ranging from 3.12 mg/mL to 100.00 mg/mL.The screening of antimicrobial properties of different extracts of C.moschata peel revealed that the DCM extract possessed good antimicrobial efficacy compared to MEOH and aqueous extracts.Conclusions:Peel of C.moschata possesses antibacterial compounds and could be potential source for a new class of antibiotics.