Evaluation of the Efficacy of Commercial Disinfectants against African Swine Fever Virus

African swine fever (ASF) is an economically important disease due to high morbidity and mortality rates and the ability to affect all ages and breeds of pigs. Biosecurity measures to prevent the spread of the causative agent, African swine fever virus (ASFV), include prescriptive cleaning and disinfection procedures. The aim of this study was to establish the biocidal effects of twenty-four commercially available disinfectants including oxidizing agents, acids, aldehydes, formic acids, phenol, and mixed-class chemistries against ASFV. The products were prepared according to the manufacturer's instructions and a suspension assay was performed with ASFV strain, BA71V using Vero cells (African green monkey cells) to test efficacy in reducing ASFV infection of cells. Generally, disinfectants containing formic acid and phenolic compounds, as well as oxidizing agents reduced viral titers of ASFV by over 4 log₁₀ at temperatures ranging from 4 °C to 20 °C. Hydrogen peroxide, aldehyde, and quaternary ammonium compounds containing disinfectants were cytotoxic, limiting the detection of viral infectivity reductions to less than 4 log₁₀. These preliminary results can be used to target research on disinfectants which contain active ingredients with known efficacy against ASFV under conditions recommended for the country where their use will be applied.

Towards a Sampling Rationale for African Swine Fever Virus Detection in Pork Products

African swine fever (ASF) is a highly lethal disease of pigs caused by the ASF virus (ASFV), which presents a serious threat to global food security. The movement of contaminated pork products has previously been postulated as contributing to the introduction of ASF into new areas. To evaluate the performance of ASFV detection systems in multi-component pork products, we spiked sausage meat with four different ASFV-containing materials (ASFV cell culture, pork loin, meat juice and bone marrow). DNA was extracted using two manual systems (MagMAX CORE, Qiagen) and one automated (MagMAX CORE) one, and three qPCR assays (VetMAX, King, UPL) were used. The performance of the DNA extraction systems was as follows; automated MagMAX > manual MagMAX > manual Qiagen. The commercial VetMAX qPCR assay yielded significantly lower CT values (p < 0.001), showing greater sensitivity than the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE)-prescribed assays (King, UPL). Detection probability was the highest for matrices contaminated with bone marrow compared with pork loin or meat juice. An estimated minimum sample size of one 1-g sample is sufficient to detect ASFV in a homogenous pork product if bone marrow from infected pigs comprises 1 part in 10,000. We demonstrated that existing ASFV detection systems are appropriate for use in a food-testing capacity, which can provide an additional control measure for ASF.

[Evaluation in vitro of the cardiotoxic effects of 5-fluorouracil for the prevention of cardiovascular damage in health workers occupationally exposed]

The occupational exposure to antineoplastic drugs in health care workers determines a risk of absorption through inhalation of vapors or skin contact with drops. Even if many data confirm the cardiotoxicity of anthracyclines, is not clear the evidence of cytotoxicity of 5-Fluorouracil, thoug in a percent of patients receiving this chemotherapy, there is the presence of heart pain, aspecific ECG disorders and induction of coronary disease. This experimental study wants to analyze on the H9c2 cardiomyocyte cell model the effects of 5-Fluorouracil, commonly used in hospital realities of the South Italy, for the prevention of the possible cardiovascular damage in workers occupationally exposed.