• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.851-865
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• 2018

This study investigated the prevalence of Listeria monocytogenes in slaughterhouses, and determined serovars and genotypes, and antibiotic resistance of the isolates obtained from slaughterhouses and humans in Korea. Two hundred ninety samples were collected from feces (n=136), carcasses [n=140 (cattle: n=61, swine: n=79)], and washing water (n=14) in nine slaughterhouses. Eleven human isolates were obtained from hospitals and the Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Listeria monocytogenes was enriched and identified, using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and 16S rRNA sequencing. Serovars and presence of virulence genes were determined, and genetic correlations among the isolates were evaluated by the restriction digest patterns of AscI. Antibiotic resistance of L. monocytogenes isolates were examined against 12 different antibiotics. Of 290 slaughterhouse samples, 15 (5.17%) carcass samples were L. monocytogenes positive. Most L. monocytogenes isolates possessed all the virulence genes, while polymorphisms in the actA gene were found between carcass and human isolates. Serovars 1/2a (33.3%) and 1/2b (46.7%) were the most frequent in carcass isolates. Genetic correlations among the isolates from carcass and clinical isolates were grouped within serotypes, but there were low geographical correlations. Most L. monocytogenes isolates were antibiotic resistant, and some strains showed resistance to more than four antibiotics. These results indicate that L. monocytogenes are isolated from carcass and human in Korea, and they showed high risk serotypes and antibiotic resistance. Therefore, intensive attentions are necessary to be aware for the risk of L. monocytogenes in Korea.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.121-127
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• 2018

To survey the prevalence of Sarcocystis infections, 210 heart samples were collected from Korean native cattle (Bos taurus coreanae) at an abattoir in Daejeon Metropolitan City, Republic of Korea. Sarcocysts were detected form 31 specimens (14.8%) and identified as Sarcocystis cruzi via transmission electron microscopy. The wall of S. cruzi has flattened protrusions that did not contain fibrils or microfilaments. The protrusions arose irregularly from the base, contained a fine granular substance, lacked internal microfilaments, and measured approximately $0.21-1.25{\mu}m$ in length and $0.05-0.07{\mu}m$ in width. Sequence analysis revealed 99.5% homology to S. cruzi. This is the first report on the prevalence of S. cruzi in native cattle from the Republic of Korea.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.7
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• pp.2697-2700
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• 2015

Background: The aim of this study was to assess cancer awareness among medical students in Saudi Arabia toward tobacco and alcohol use as risk factors. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional survey from October to December 2014, covering 1200 medical students, was performed. Results: Of the total, 975 (81.25%) responded. The male to female ratio was 1.00:7.125. 96/975 (9.8%) had smoked tobacco in their lifetime, and 51/975 (5.23%) were alcoholic beverage consumers. On asking them whether tobacco smoking and alcohol consumption can cause cancer, only 4/975 (0.4%) and 14/975 (1.43%) answered no for smoking and alcohol, respectively. Conclusions: The prevalence of smoking and alcohol use is very low among medical students, which might be due to high female contribution besides social stigma. The prevalence of second-hand smoke (SHS) was found to be very high in Hail region.

• Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.691-703
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• 1998

Saliva is obviously potential medium to protect the dental caries by not only physical clearing effect, but aggregating action of protein with bacteria. Nevertheless, we still do not understand how the dental caries occur and what brings the individual difference in caries prevalence. In the regards of dental caries prevalence, we hypothesized that the composition of salivary protein might be different from caries susceptible group to caries resistant group. The purposes of this experiment were focused on the molecular analysis of salivary proteins from the subjects who were involved in multiple caries. Electrophoretic analysis was done on the whole saliva collected from the children with and without multiple caries. We found 86.2% of subjects with multiple caries has approximately 120 KDa protein band while 30.4% in the healthy subjects. And the concentration of the total protein on the subjects with multiple caries is significantly higher than that of the healthy group. However, it turned out that the difference of the salivary composition does not affect the bacterial adhesion to hydroxyapatite bead. With regards of enzymes in saliva, the activity of ${\alpha}-amylase$ and lactate dehydrogenase does not have any significant difference between both groups. However, the concentrations of $Na^+\;and\;Cl^-$ in saliva from multiple caries group is higher than that of the control group. Taken all together, it may be concluded that 120 KDa protein in saliva may be associated with the process of dental caries, also the high concentration of protein and $Na^+,\;Cl^-$ in saliva may be linked to dental caries development as a cofactors.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.351-355
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• 2017

Hymenolepis nana and Hymenolepis diminuta are globally widespread zoonotic cestodes. Rodents are the main reservoir host of these cestodes. Brown rats (Rattus norvegicus) are the best known and most common rats, and usually live wherever humans live, especially in less than desirable hygiene conditions. Due to the little information of the 2 hymenolepidid species in brown rats in China, the aim of this study was to understand the prevalence and genetic characterization of H. nana and H. diminuta in brown rats in Heilongjiang Province, China. Total 114 fecal samples were collected from brown rats in Heilongjiang Province. All the samples were subjected to morphological examinations by microscopy and genetic analysis by PCR amplification of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (COX1) gene and the internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) region of the nuclear ribosomal RNA gene. In total, 6.1% (7/114) and 14.9% (17/114) of samples were positive for H. nana and H. diminuta, respectively. Among them, 7 and 3 H. nana isolates were successfully amplified and sequenced at the COX1 and ITS2 loci, respectively. No nucleotide variations were found among H. nana isolates at either of the 2 loci. Seventeen H. diminuta isolates produced 2 different COX1 sequences while 7 ITS2 sequences obtained were identical to each other. The present results of H. nana and H. diminuta infections in brown rats implied the risk of zoonotic transmission of hymenolepiasis in China. These molecular data will be helpful to deeply study intra-specific variations within Hymenolepis cestodes in the future.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.12
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• pp.6109-6113
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• 2012

Background: Oral cancer has become one of the most prevalent cancers worldwide and human Papillomavirus is one of the risk factors for developing oral cancer. For this study HPV18 was chosen as it is one of the high risk HPV types and may lead to carcinogenesis. However, prevalence of HPV18 infection in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma in Malaysia remains unclear. Objective: This study aimed to investigate the viral load of HPV18 DNA in OSCC and potentially malignant lesions using saliva samples. Materials and Methods: Genomic DNAs of thirty saliva samples of normal subjects and thirty saliva samples compromised of 16 samples from potentially malignant lesions and 14 of OSCC patients were amplified for HPV18 DNA using a nested polymerase chain reaction analysis. All PCR products were then analyzed using the Bioanalyzer to confirm presence of HPV18 DNA. Result: From thirty patients examined, only one of 30 (3.3%) cases was found to be positive for HPV18 in this study. Conclusion: The finding of this study revealed that there is a low viral detection of HPV18 in Malaysian OSCC by using saliva samples, suggesting that prevalence of HPV18 may not be important in this group of Malaysian OSCC.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.379-384
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• 2012

Resistance of Plasmodium spp. to anti-malarial drugs is the primary obstacle in the fight against malaria, and molecular markers for the drug resistance have been applied as an adjunct in the surveillance of the resistance. In this study, we investigated the prevalence of mutations in pvmdr1, pvcrt-o, pvdhfr, and pvdhps genes in temperate-zone P. vivax parasites from central China. A total of 26 isolates were selected, including 8 which were previously shown to have a lower susceptibility to chloroquine in vitro. For pvmdr1, pvcrt-o, and pvdhps genes, no resistance-conferring mutations were discovered. However, a highly prevalent (69.2%), single-point mutation (S117N) was found in pvdhfr gene. In addition, tandem repeat polymorphisms existed in pvdhfr and pvdhps genes, which warranted further studies in relation to the parasite resistance to antifolate drugs. The study further suggests that P. vivax populations in central China may still be relatively susceptible to chloroquine and sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.758-771
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• 2020

This study was to investigate the prevalence and characteristics of antimicrobial-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) from 4,264 retail meat samples including beef, pork, and chicken in Korea between 2013 and 2018. A broth microdilution antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed for S. aureus. Molecular typing by multilocus sequence typing (MLST), spa typing, and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), was performed on mecA-positive S. aureus strain. S. aureus was isolated at a rate of 18.2% (777/4,264), of which MRSA comprised 0.7% (29 strains). MLST analysis showed that 11 out of the 29 MRSA isolates were predominantly sequence type (ST) 398 (37.9%). In addition, ST72, ST692, ST188, ST9, and ST630 were identified in the MRSA isolates. The spa typing results were classified into 11 types and showed a high correlation with MLST. The antimicrobial resistance assays revealed that MRSA showed 100% resistance to cefoxitin and penicillin. In addition, resistance to tetracycline (62.1%), clindamycin (55.2%), and erythromycin (55.2%) was relatively high; 27 of the 29 MRSA isolates exhibited multidrug resistance. PFGE analysis of the 18 strains excluding the 11 ST398 strains exhibited a maximum of 100% homology and a minimum of 64.0% homology. Among these, three pairs of isolates showed 100% homology in PFGE; these results were consistent with the MLST and spa typing results. Identification of MRSA at the final consumption stage has potential risks, suggesting that continuous monitoring of retail meat products is required.

• Journal of Embryo Transfer
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.337-342
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• 2013

Salmonellosis is one of the life-threating diseases of goat in Bangladesh. Therefore, the present study was designed to study the prevalence of Salmonellosis, and isolation and characterizations of the Salmonella spp. from apparently healthy and diarrheic goat. A total of 47 faces samples were collected from selected place and cultured onto different prescribed medium to isolate it. In this study, 12.76% (6/47) samples were found to be positive for Salmonella spp. During culture on SS agar medium, all of the Salmonella isolates produced round, smooth, opaque, translucent and black color colonies on SS agar media. All of the isolated Salmonella spp. fermented dextrose, maltose and mannitol with production of acid and gas but did not ferment sucrose and lactose. However, these isolates had showed Indole and Voges-Proskauer test negative, Methyl-Red test positive. All of these isolates were subjected to rapid plate agglutination test with polyvalent "O" (Poly 'O') and polyvalent "H" (poly 'H') antisera where positive agglutination were observed. They were highly sensitive to ciprofloxacin, spiramycin and gentamycin; moderately sensitive to oxytetracyline, streptomycin and amoxicillin; less sensitive to sulphamethoxazole and resistant to penicillin-G. Based on the present findings, it may be concluded that the investigated Salmonella spp. from goats might be S. typhimurium, S. enteritidis, S. brandenburg, S. salford, S. newbrunswick, S. newport or S. dublin. Further study will be needed, therefore it requires further characterization using other serological and molecular techniques.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.57 no.6
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• pp.699-704
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• 2019

Anisakiasis (anisakidosis) refers to a foodborne zoonosis caused by ingesting raw or undercooked marine fish or cephalopods infected with anisakid larvae. The present study was performed to investigate the prevalence of anisakid larvae in anchovies (Engraulis japonica) purchased from 2 local markets in Gyeongsangnam-do, the Republic of Korea (=Korea), during 2018-2019. Anchovies were transported to our laboratory and examined by pepsin-HCl artificial digestion technique followed by microscopic observations and molecular analyses. The overall prevalence of anisakid larvae was 19.5% (39/200), from which a total of 51 larvae (av. 1.3 larvae/infected anchovy) were recovered. Sequencing of the larvae targeting the ITS region, including ITS1, 5.8S rRNA, and ITS2 genes confirmed the species of larvae as Anisakis pegreffii (54.9%; 28/51), Hysterothylacium sinense (23.5%; 12/51), and Hysterothylacium aduncum (21.5%; 11/51). The results suggested that anchovies could be a potential source of human anisakiasis in Korea.