Use of antibiotics in food animals may contribute to development and spread of resistant organisms, particularly so in some countries. The aim of this study was two-fold; first, to establish the prevalence of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Escherichia coli in chicken production in a region within Romania. Second, to study the relatedness of ESBL-producing E. coli isolates recovered from broilers, abattoir workers where the chickens were slaughtered and from the human clinical specimens from two regional hospitals. The results indicated a very high (69%) rate of carriage of ESBL and AmpC-producing E. coli in chickens with 36% CTX-M producers. Sequencing showed that chickens in Romania have the highest worldwide prevalence (53%) of blaCTX-M-15 reported in poultry E. coli isolates. The majority (53%) of the extended-spectrum cephalosporin-resistant E. coli carried plasmid-mediated blaampC genes, mostly blaCMY-2 type, one of the highest prevalences reported in Europe. The predominant CTX-M type found in the human clinical E. coli isolates was blaCTX-M-15 and most isolates coharbored blaOXA-1, blaTEM, and aac(6')-ib-cr. The majority (60%) of the human clinical isolates belonged to the pandemic virulent clone B2-ST131. The clonal relationship between broiler and the human CTX-M-producing E. coli isolates was assessed by macrorestriction pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and multilocus sequence typing (MLST), which indicated strain diversity with no common STs found between human and poultry isolates. Moreover, IncI1 was the most prevalent replicon found in broiler ESBL-producing E. coli isolates and also in transconjugants, indicating that plasmids and not clonal spread may play a role in the transfer of blaCTX-M genes. This study identifies a high prevalence of ESBL-producing E. coli from broiler chickens in Romania with a high occurrence incidence of blaCTX-M-15, which reflects the main ESBL type found in human E. coli infections in this country.

Listeria monocytogenes represents an important hazard to human health because it is capable of causing listeriosis, an atypical foodborne disease with a high fatality rate.The aim of this study was to detect and serotype Listeria monocytogenes in some food products (of animal and vegetable origin)

The objective of this study was to investigate the airborne viable spore concentrations and identify the fungal species in all indoor spaces from the lending library at the Technical University ''Gheorghe Asachi'' Iaşi, Romania. Samples were collected using the settle plate method and swab samples from PC cooler fan grids as well as from the wall in it's vicinity and from paper/wood fragments. There were no air conditioning systems in the library rooms. The heating systems were standard with an environmental temperature of 20°C in winter, except for the storage area of old/rare books stacks II, where the temperature was below 15°C and the humidity was very high due to water infiltrations in the walls and poor maintenance. More than 296 fungal colonies from over 78 samples were identified, enumerated, and reported. Indoor airborne fungal spore deposition rates were within the range of 419-1,677 CFU/m 2 , with the predominance of genera being Aspergillus spp., Penicillium spp., Cladosporium spp., Alternaria spp. and Chaetomium spp. Approximately ten fungal colonies could not be identified. The PC fans move particles from the low levels (floor) to the air, and are thus responsible for maintaining a constant air velocity and contribute to fungal-spore aerosolization, transport, deposition and resuspension. Book paper and wood furniture are known to be suitable substrates for cellulose degrading fungi.

No abstract

The prevalence of the strains of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Enterobacteriaceae is continuously increasing at the global level. The appearance of ESBL enzymes represents a danger for the efficacy of treatments with beta-lactam antibiotics (Măciucă I., 2015). The aim of the study resided in assessing the prevalence of ESBL-positive strains of E. coli and K. pneumoniae in pets that were treated with antibiotics (Enrofloxacin, Ciprofloxacin, Cefadroxil) for various bacterial infectious diseases. In February 2015, 29 faeces samples were collected at the rectal level from dogs and cats. The samples were collected with the help of sterile buffers. For the screening of the strains of (ESBL)-producing Enterobacteriaceae, the Oxoid Brilliance chromogenic ESBL Agar medium was used, a specific medium for the isolation of (ESBL)-producing Enterobacteriaceae because it contains cefpodoxim, a second-generation cephalosporin to which all the extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing strains are resistant. The phenotypic confirmation of the isolated ESBL strains was achieved by using the combined disc method (Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute, 2014). The taxonomic classification of the strains that were isolated was achieved by testing some minimal biochemical characteristics with the help of the MIU, TSI, EMBA, TBX tests. The E. coli ATCC 25922 and K.pneumoniae ATCC 700603 strains were used as a reference for quality control for the antibiotic sensitivity test.The results have been interpreted according to the CLSI 2014 standard. As a result of sample processing, we noticed a prevalence of 62.06% in the individuals who were carriers of E. coli and K. Pneumoniae ESBL-positive strains.