• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.353-358
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• 2020

Objectives: An outbreak of pathogenic Escherichia coli food poisoning in Korea was first reported in 1998. They have continued to occure since then. This study was performed to describe the long-term trend in pathogenic E. coli food poisoning occurrences in Korea and examine the relation with climate factors. Methods: Official Korean statistics on food poisoning outbreaks and meteorological data for the period 2002-2017 were used. Pearson's correlation analysis was employed to establish the relationship between outbreaks of pathogenic E. coli food poisoning and meteorological factors. The influence of meteorological factors upon the outbreaks was analyzed by regression analysis. Results: During the study period, pathogenic E. coli food poisoning ranked second for the number of outbreaks (excluding unknowns) and first for the number of cases. Average temperature, the highest and lowest temperatures, precipitation, number of days with rainfall, and humidity all had a significant correlation with monthly number of outbreaks of pathogenic E. coli food poisoning (p<0.001). It was found that the lowest and highest temperatures and precipitation had a significant influence on the monthly number of outbreaks of food poisoning (p<0.001). These variables together explained 42.1% of the total variance, with the lowest temperature having the greatest explanatory power. Conclusion: These results show that food poisoning incidences may have been influenced by climate change, especially warming. The results also suggest that pathogenic E. coli infections are now an important public health issue in Korea since it is one of the countries where climate change is occurring rapidly.

• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.132-136
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• 2013

Antimicrobial resistance and multi-drug resistance patterns have been carried out on total of 210 isolated of Salmonella spp. and pathogenic E. coli isolated from food poisoning patients on January through December 2012 in Incheon, Korea. The highest percentage of antibiotics resistance was found to the following antimicrobial agents: tetracycline 43.8%, ampicillin 34.8%, nalidixic acid 23.8%, sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim and chloramphenicol 12.4%, and ampicillin/sulbactam 11.4%. The highest percentage of resistance was 37.5% to ampicillin for Salmonella spp. and 59.0% to tetracycline for pathogenic E. coli. Overall the multidrug resistance rates of 1 drug was 26.2%, 2 drugs 9.0%, 3 drugs 9.5%, 4 drugs 7.1%, and 5 or more drugs 12.46%. The multi-drug (MDR) strains to four or more antimicrobial agents among the resistant organisms were quite high: 15.9% and 22.1% for Salmonella spp. and pathogenic E. coli, respectively. The study implies that limitation of unnecessary medication use is pertinent in order to maintaining the efficacy of drugs.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.121-128
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• 2020

Diarrhea is a major public health concern associated with pathogenic Escherichia coli infections. Food-borne pathogenic E. coli can lead to large diarrheal outbreaks and hence, there is a need to estimate the frequency of pathogenic E. coli load in the various types of meat available in markets. In the present study, we classified and characterized diarrheagenic E. coli isolates collected from 399 raw meat samples from retail sources in Korea. Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) were detected in 11 (9.7%) samples, including nine strains (8.0%) in beef and two strains (1.8%) in chicken. The frequency of the detected virulence markers were as follows: astA, 28.3%; escV,18.6%; eaeA,17.7%; ent, 7.0%; EHEC-hly, 4.4%; stx1, 3.5%; and stx2, 3.5%. We did not observe any typical EPEC, EIEC, or ETEC virulence determinants in any of the samples. The STEC serotype O26 was detected in one sample, but no other serogroups (O91, O103, O128, O157, O145, O111, and O121) were found. Further research is needed to better understand the virulence mechanism of STEC serotypes, their ecology, and prevalence in animals, food, and the environment. These results will help improve risk assessment and predict the sources of food poisoning outbreaks.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.277-285
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• 1996

Retrospective study on the comparison of outbreaks of food poisoning for food hygiene in Korea and Japan. The average value of morbidity rate by year in Korea during the period of 1971 to 1992 was 2.9 per 100,000 population, and that of Japan was 29.1. The mean value of mortality rates in case of food poisoning by year in Korea was 2.33%, and that of Japan was 0.07%. When compared the rates of morbidity and mortality between Korea and Japan during the same period, the morbidity rates of Japan were much higher than those of Korea (p<0.01). However, mortality rate of patients in Korea were much higher then those of Japan(p<0.01). Resulting from comparative observation of food poisoning by preparing facilities between Korea and Japan. The highest list the places where the outbreaks occurred was home-made foods accounted for 48.8% of the total cases in Korea and that of Japan was restaurants accounted for 33.0%. Causative foods in Korea, the most common incrimination vehicles were seafood, meat and animal products and grain and vegetables, including mushroom. However, in the case of the common incrimination vehicles Japan were unknown and other foods, seafood, vegetables and meat and animal products etc.. Food poisoning of pathogenic substance in Korea were 60.9% of bacterial food poisoning of the total cases showing that Vibrio species, Salmonella spp., Staphylococcus spp., pathogenic E. coli, Clostridium spp. and other spp. were 33.3%, 26.2%, 16.3%, 5.3%, 0.4% and 18.5%, respectively. On the other hand, in Japan, major causes were Vibrio spp. (45.7%), Staphylococcus spp. (23.7%), Salmonella spp. (16.8%), pathogenic E. coli (3.8%), Clostridium spp. (0.2%) and other spp. (9.6%).

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.285-295
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• 2014

This study was conducted to survey the epidemiological characteristics and the isolated strains for pathogenic E. coli which was the major causative organisms for food poisoning occurred at school food services in the Gyeonggi-do area during the past three years. We investigated 19 accidents of food-borne disease outbreaks by pathogenic E. coli at school food services from 2010 to 2012. Food-borne disease outbreaks by pathogenic E. coli were usually occurred at direct management type (18 accidents, 95%) and high schools. For the seasonal factors, 13 accidents (65%) were occurred in June to September, especially the end of August and September after the summer holidays. The first patients were occurred on Wednesday (7 accidents, 37%) and Thursday (7 accidents, 37%), and they were mainly reported on Thursday (7 accidents, 37%) and Friday (5 accidents, 26%). The exposure of risk was estimated in Monday (4 accidents, 21%), Tuesday (7 accidents, 37%) and Wednesday (4 accidents, 21%), and kimchi (5 accidents, 50%) was estimated as the food of the high risk responsible for the outbreaks. 98 isolates of pathogenic E. coli consisted of PEC (50%), ETEC (34%), EAEC (15%), and EHEC (1%). The antibiotic resistance of pathogenic E. coli showed in the descending order of ampicilline (40%), nalidixic acid (37%), trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (24%), and tetracycline (19%). The antibiotics of second and third generation cephalosporins, cabarpenem, aminoglycosides, and second generation quinolones had antimicrobial susceptibilities and cefalotin, ampicillin/sulbactam and chloramphenicol showed medium resistance at 29%, 25%, and 6% respectively, and 70% of isolates were resistant to more than one antibiotic. By the PFGE analysis, they were classified into nine major groups and 31 profiles with 57% pattern similarity. It was very difficult to find the correlation of antimicrobial susceptibilities and genotype in the small scale-food poisoning, but the similarity of antimicrobial resistance and PFGE patterns in the large scale-food poisoning enabled the outbreaks to estimate the same pathotype of E. coli derived from identical origins.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.366-374
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• 2012

Recently pathogenic E. coli is one of the main foodborne pathogens resulting in many patients in Korea. To understand the characteristics of pathogenic E. coli outbreaks in Korea, the epidemiological investigation reports of pathogenic E. coli outbreak in 2009 (41 reports) and in 2010 (27 reports) were collected in the web site of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reviewed and analysed in this study. The main places of the pathogenic E. coli outbreaks were food catering service area (64.8%) and restaurants (25.0%). The main type of the pathogens were EPEC (44.7%) and ETEC (34.2%). EAEC and EHEC was responsible for 10.5 and 9.2%, respectively. Eight of 68 outbreak cases were caused by more than 2 types of pathogenic E. coli which implicates the complicated contamination pathways of pathogenic E. coli. The incidence rate of pathogenic E. coli was $33.6{\pm}30.5%$ and the main symptoms were diarrhea, stomach ache, nausea, vomiting, and fever etc. The two identified food sources were identified as frozen hamburger pattie and squid-vegetable mixture. To improve the food source identification by epidemiological investigation, food poisoning notification to the agency should not be delayed, whole food items attributed the outbreak should be collected and detection method of the various pathogenic E. coli in food has to be improved. In conclusion, the characteristics between the EHEC outbreaks in the western countries and the EPEC or ETEC outbreaks in Korea needs to be distinguished to prepare food safety management plan. In addition, the development of the trace back system to find the contamination pathway with the improved detection method in food and systemic and cooperative support by the related agencies are necessary.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.130-136
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• 2007

Artemisia capillaris THUNB is a perennial herb that belongs to the family Compositae spp and the most common plant among the various herbal folk remedies used in treatment of abdominal pain, hepatitis, chronic liver disease, jaundice and coughing in Korea. In this study, antimicrobial effects of Artemisia capillaris extracts on the food poisoning bacteria were investigated for further clinical application, which is an alternative for the use of antibiotics and their unexpected resistance. Artemisia capillaris extract using ethyl acetate showed the highest antimicrobial effects on S. enteritidis, E. coli O157 : H7, L. monocytogenes and S. aureus. The chloroform extract showed strong effects on all kinds of bacteria; whereas ethanol and methanol extracts showed weaker effects. Finally, ether and water extracts showed the weakest effects under the same conditions. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of ethyl acetate extract was 1 mg/mL for E. coli O157 : H7 and L. monocytogenes, and 2 mg/mL for S. enteritidis and S. aureus. The inhibitory effects on all the bacteria continued for 12 hours after incubation using 20 mg/mL and 30 mg/mL of ethyl acetate extract. The inhibitory effects continued maximally for 72 hours. The results of these studies indicate Artemisia capillaris extract exhibited excellent antimicrobial and inhibitory effects on the food poisoning pathogenic bacteria; S. enteritidis, E. coli O157 : H7, L. monocytogenes and S. aureus.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.184-191
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• 2020

Objectives: This study was performed to analyze cases of food poisoning outbreaks reported in Chungcheongnamdo Province in 2019 and report it as effective data for preventing food poisoning in the future. Methods: Food poisoning outbreaks were analyzed to detect virus, bacteria, and protozoa according to the Manual for Detection of Foodborne Pathogens in Outbreaks to clarify the causes of food poisoning that occurred in Chungcheongnam-do Province in 2019. Results: Among the 79 cases of food poisoning outbreaks, 59 cases (74.7%) were in general restaurants, 15 cases (19.0%) in food service institutions, three cases at banquets, and two cases in take-out food. The 42 cases at general seafood restaurants made up the majority of food poisoning in Chungcheongnam-do. Food poisoning pathogens were shown in 13 cases (86.7%) out of the 15 cases at food service institutions, and 10 cases were related to Norovirus. Among the 79 cases, food-borne pathogens were identified in 35 cases of outbreaks, accounting for 44.3%. The confirmed pathogens were as follows: bacteria (24 cases), Norovirus (12 cases) and Kudoa septempunctata. (five cases). The food-borne bacteria were pathogenic E. coli (12 cases), Staphylococcus aureus (six cases), Salmonella spp. (two cases), Campylobacter jejuni, Bacillus cereus, Clostridium perfringens, and Vibrio parahaemolyticus (one case). Conclusions: To prevent food poisoning, it is necessary to analyze regional characteristics and environments and to hold a campaign for the prevention of food poisoning based on that analysis. In addition, when food poisoning occurs, the results of analyzing its cause and spread based on accurate epidemiological survey need to be shared.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.12 no.11
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• pp.4924-4931
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• 2011

This research performed to evaluate a production processes reporting by the HACCP system of green vegetable juice products, containing lactic acid bacteria, stage of processing raw materials agricultural products and production facilities of general bacteria and pathogenic micro organism. General bacteria are found from four samples of storage of agricultural products at process stage and water was detected 8.67~14.67 CFU/ml. However, all samples were detected less than 105 CFU/ml as a legal standards after the process of UV sterilization. For the outcome of experiment of E.coli, E.coli O157:H7, B.cereus, L.moonocytogenes, Salmonella spp, Staph.aureus as the food poisoning bacterial, E.coli was detected until UV pre-step process in storage process and B.cereus was detected partly till 1st washing. Since all bacterial, Yeast and Mold are detected in main materials, pre-control method is a necessary to establish for decreasing with a number of initial bacteria of main materials and it is considered to establish the effective ways of washing and sterilization such as production facilities for cross contamination prevention of bacteria and Sthaphylococcus. Based on above results, the process of UV sterilization should be managed with CCP as an important process to reduce or eliminate the general and food poisoning bacterial of green vegetable juice products, including lactic acid bacteria. Therefore, it is considered to need an exhaustive HACCP plan such as control manual of UV sterilization, solution method, verification, education and training and record management.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.125-129
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• 2007

Artemisia capillaris THUNB is a perennial herb that belongs to the family Compositae spp and the most common plant among the various herbal folk remedies used in treatment of abdominal pain, hepatitis, chronic liver disease, jaundice and coughing in Korea. This experiment was conducted to investigate the inhibitory effects of orally administrated Artemisia capillaris extracts on the pathogenic bacteria in 200 ICR mice. The experimental groups showed inhibitory effects on the bacteria in $1{\sim}3$ days after inoculation. After 21 days of inoculation, no viable bacterial cells appeared in the feces of both experimental groups while they did appear in the control group. The results of these studies indicate Artemisia capillaris extract exhibited excellent antimicrobial and inhibitory effects on the food poisoning pathogenic bacteria; S. enteritidis, E. coli O157:H7, L. monocytogenes and S. aureus.