Background and Aim: Foodborne illnesses are a serious challenge to human health and the economic sector. For example, salmonellosis remains a burden in developed and developing nations. Rapid and reliable molecular methods to identify Salmonella strains are essential for minimizing human infection. This study aimed to identify Salmonella spp. in raw milk and dairy products using conventional and molecular techniques and to test the antibiotic susceptibility of the isolated strains. Materials and Methods: One hundred and thirty-one milk and dairy product samples were randomly collected from different localities in Libya. Samples were examined for the presence of Salmonella by conventional culture techniques, including cultivation in Rappaport-Vassiliadis broth and streaking on xylose lysine deoxycholate agar. Identification also used polymerase chain reaction and partial sequencing of 16S rDNA. Twenty-four antibiotics were used for the examination of antimicrobial resistance of Salmonella spp. isolates with the agar disk diffusion method (Kirby–Bauer technique). Multi-antibiotic resistance index and antibiotic resistance index (ARI)for Salmonella enterica isolates were calculated. Results: Twenty-one of 131 samples (16%) were positive for Salmonella spp. recovered from 9 (16%), 2 (11%), 4 (22.2%), and 6 (46%) samples of raw cow milk, fermented raw milk, and fresh locally made soft cheeses, Maasora and Ricotta), respectively. Samples of ice cream, milk powder, and infant formula showed no Salmonella spp. contamination. Only 9 of 21 (42.8%) isolates were confirmed as S. enterica by partial sequence 16S rDNA analysis. All isolates were resistant to amoxycillin, bacitracin, penicillin G, lincomycin, vancomycin, clindamycin, and cloxacillin with an ARI of 0.042. In contrast, all tested strains were sensitive to levofloxacin, doxycycline, and ciprofloxacin. In addition, all of the tested isolates (100%) were resistant to more than one antibiotic. Conclusion: This study demonstrated the applicability of molecular techniques, compared with conventional methods, as preferable for the identification of Salmonella in milk and dairy products and thus reduction of milk-borne transmission to the consumers. From the view of public health, isolation and identification of Salmonella multidrug-resistant strains from raw cow's milk and locally prepared dairy products sold in the Libyan markets indicate the need to improve the handling and processing of milk and dairy products to minimize the prevalence of Salmonella, one of the most important foodborne microorganisms that cause food poisoning.
Ibrahim Eldaghayes(5-2022)

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is a highly contagious disease of livestock affecting animal production and trade throughout Asia and Africa. Understanding FMD virus (FMDV) global movements and evolution can help to reconstruct the disease spread between endemic regions and predict the risks of incursion into FMD-free countries. Global expansion of a single FMDV lineage is rare but can result in severe economic consequences. Using extensive sequence data we have reconstructed the global space-time transmission history of the O/ME-SA/Ind-2001 lineage (which normally circulates in the Indian sub-continent) providing evidence of at least 15 independent escapes during 2013–2017 that have led to outbreaks in North Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, the Far East and the FMD-free islands of Mauritius. We demonstrated that sequence heterogeneity of this emerging FMDV lineage is accommodated within two co-evolving divergent sublineages and that recombination by exchange of capsid-coding sequences can impact upon the reconstructed evolutionary histories. Thus, we recommend that only sequences encoding the outer capsid proteins should be used for broad-scale phylogeographical reconstruction. These data emphasise the importance of the Indian subcontinent as a source of FMDV that can spread across large distances and illustrates the impact of FMDV genome recombination on FMDV molecular epidemiology.
Ibrahim Eldaghayes(10-2018)

Abstract: This study was carried out to detect different coliforms members with special reference to the occurrence of the pathogenic Escherichia coli existing in raw cow`s milk and some dairy products. 105 samples (35 raw milk, 35 fermented milk, and 35 ricotta cheeses) were randomly collected from different markets in Tripoli-city /Libya. In this study, two methods for coliform counting were used. The first one was the most probable number technique MPN using liquid Lauryl Sulphate Tryptone broth (LST) with a three-tube series and the second method was the plate count method using violet red bile lactose agar VRBA. Also different techniques were used to find comparative results by using the BD phoenix system, the VITEK® 2 Compact system and KB003Hi25™ Enterobacteriaceae Identification Kit methods for coliform counts in raw milk, fermented milk and ricotta chesses. The coliform bacteria were positive in all 35 (100%) samples of both raw milk and fermented milk, while 33 (94.3%) samples out of 35of ricotta cheese by using MPN-technique. Whereas, Coliform bacteria were positive in 25 (71.4%) samples of raw milk, 34 (97.1%) samples of fermented milk and in 22 (62.9%) samples of ricotta cheese by using VRBA-technique. However, the fecal Coliform bacteria were recorded in 30 (85.7%) samples of raw milk, 32 (91.4%) samples of fermented milk and in 24 (68.6%) samples of ricotta by the used MPN-technique. Whereas, fecal Coliform bacteria were detected in 11 (31.4%) samples of raw milk, 19 (54.3%) samples of fermented milk and in only 9 (25.7%) samples of ricotta cheese by the VRBA-technique. Moreover, the most commonly identified important pathogenic bacteria Gram-negative isolated the highest overall incidence rate was for Escherichia coli 117(58.5%) and Klebsiella pneumonia spp pneumonia 47(23.5%) out of 200 randomly selected from 900 isolates. These findings results revealed that a high number of bacteria, which provide an evidence for the lack of milk hygiene either during milking or transporting and storages Statistical analyses revealed significant T-test at level P
خديجة مختار التواتي (2015)