We conducted a pilot study to examine pesticides in dust of homes in a rural county of Taiwan. A total of 56 homes of pregnant women were included in the study. Indoor and outdoor dust was collected by a vacuum sampler and a dustpan/brush set, respectively. Nine pesticides were selected for analysis on gas chromatography-mass spectrometry with the detection limits being 0.088 ng/g or lower. The most detected pesticides were cypermethrin and chlorpyrifos, which appeared in 82.7 and 78.8% of indoor samples and 48.2 and 39.3% of outdoor samples, respectively. The detection of pesticides from indoor and outdoor dust, however, was not consistent, indicating different sources of pesticides. In addition to those two most detected, permethrin, prallethrin, and tetramethrin, which were common ingredients of insecticide products for indoor use, were also frequently found in indoor dust, suggesting that indoor use of such pesticide products may have been a major source. Fewer pesticides were found in outdoor dust, but the outdoor detection of chlorpyrifos was significantly associated with farms present inside the circles with radii of 50 and 100 m surrounding the homes (P = 0.021, 0.016). It is suggested that pesticide drift from agricultural areas to residential environments may have occurred. No seasonal effect on distribution of pesticides in dust was found, indicating that pesticides could be routinely used in Taiwan regardless of season. Compared with other international studies, this study shows relatively high levels of chlorpyrifos but low levels of pyrethroids (i.e., cypermethrin), reflecting a different pattern of pesticide use in Taiwan. Further studies need to be warranted for a better understanding of exposure to pesticides and the associated health effects.

The emergence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in dogs constitutes a threat to animal and human health. There is a lack of studies in Illinois that evaluated the prevalence of AMR among urinary bacterial pathogens. In the study, we included 803 isolates (299 Gram-positive and 504 Gram-negative) that were isolated from 2,583 canine urine samples submitted to the Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, the University of Illinois between 2019 and 2020 from dogs suspected of urinary tract infections (UTI). The most common Gram-positive isolates included Staphylococcus pseudintermedius (17.93%), Enterococcus faecalis (9.46%), Streptococcus canis (6.10%), and Enterococcus faecium (3.74%), while Gram-negative isolates included Escherichia coli (45.58%), Proteus mirabilis (11.08%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (3.11%), and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (2.99%). Among the Gram-positive isolates, Staphylococcus pseudintermedius isolates showed a very high prevalence of resistance to penicillin (56.94%), a high prevalence of resistance to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (31.94%), enrofloxacin (29.17%), and oxacillin (27.08%). Among Gram-negative bacteria, Escherichia coli isolates showed a high prevalence of resistance to ampicillin (31.42%). Considering the high prevalence of resistance to antimicrobials commonly used to treat UTI in dogs, urine samples should be collected for bacterial culture and susceptibility testing before treatment initiation to prevent treatment failures and the development of multidrug resistance. Given the possibility of zoonotic transmission of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria, veterinarians when treating UTI cases, should inform dog owners of the potential transmission risk.

We conducted a pilot study to examine the relationship between organophosphate (OP) and pyrethroid (PYR) insecticides in blood and their metabolites in urine. A total of 30 pregnant women were enrolled in the study, and blood and urine was sampled from each subject during a regular clinic visit. Two OP and nine PYR insecticides were selected for blood sample analysis, while six OP and five PYR metabolites were analyzed for urine specimens. Both types of samples were processed and analyzed on gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. For OPs in blood, chlorpyrifos had a higher mean concentration (73.33 µg/L) than terbufos. For PYRs in blood, cypermethrin and imiprothrin were the most frequently detected species with the highest mean concentrations (151.25 and 141.25 µg/L). The concentrations of PYRs appeared to be higher than that of OPs, and the most frequently detected PYRs were commonly used in domestic products, suggesting that the exposure could mostly originate from use of domestic insecticides. The correlation between insecticides in blood and their metabolites in urine was significantly high (r = 0.795 for OPs and 0.882 for PYRs, p < 0.001), indicating routine exposure at a steady state. Residents should be cautious with domestic use of insecticide products to lower their exposure.

Borneol is a monoterpene that is widely used in traditional Chinese medicine. There are two different products sold in Taipei's traditional Chinese medicine market, natural and chemically synthesized borneol. Chemically synthesized borneol contains four stereoisomers, (+)-isoborneol, (-)-isoborneol, (-)-borneol, and (+)-borneol. The ratio of these four isomers in chemically synthesized and natural borneol products was determined by gas chromatography mass spectrometry. A huge variation between these products is highlighted in this survey. The results suggest that the Food and Drug Administrations in Asian countries should establish a regulatory standard regarding the ratio of the four different borneol isomers in both natural and chemically synthesized borneol.

We have developed a rapid, sensitive, and reliable method for simultaneous determination of the urinary metabolites of common insecticides in a single analytical run using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GCMS). Thirteen metabolites, one originating from carbamate, six from organophosphates, and seven from pyrethroids, were selected for method validation. Samples at different concentrations (0.5–15 µg/L) were prepared by mixing working solutions containing the analytes with blank urine. After acid hydrolysis for 45 min at 90 °C, samples were processed with liquid–liquid extraction and derivatization by N-tert-butyldimethylsilyl-N-methyltrifluoroacetamide (MTBSTFA) before analysis on GCMS. The limits of detection for all thirteen analytes were below 0.1 µg/L. The recovery rates, evaluated at two concentrations (1, 10 µg/L), were found to be 90.48%, on average. The precision of multiple analyses at three different concentrations (0.5, 5, 15 µg/L) within one day or between 10 days was evaluated, and the resultant relative standard deviations were 8.1% or under. We also applied this method to analyze genuine urine samples collected from 30 human subjects, and successfully detected all the metabolites, with detection frequencies more than 50% for pyrethroid metabolites. In summary, this method is not only as good as others in performance, but is advantageous in terms of cost effectiveness and multiplicity of analytes.