a. danesh

The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of bovine mastitis, isolate of mastitis-causing bacteria and characterize antimicrobial resistance pattern at selected dairy farms around Gorgan, Golestan province. Among 60 lactating cows, 16 (26.6%) cows were positive bovine for subclinical mastitis by California Mastitis Test. Bacterial culture and Agar disc diffusion was used for isolation and antibiotic susceptibility test. The most prevalent isolated bacteria were Staphylococcus aureus (36 cases, 45% (and coagulase-negative Staphylococci (18 cases, 22.5 %,( followed by Eschershia coli (14 cases, 17.5%), Klebsiella pneumonia, Pseudomonas aeruoginosa and Streptococci (4 each, 5%). Antimicrobial susceptibility testing revealed that 92.5% and 82.5% of total isolates were susceptible to gentamycin and ciprofloxacin, respectively. In addition, the E. coli isolates showed 92.8% sensitivity to neomycin. However, the highest resistance was observed against penicillin (90%), trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (87.5%) and erythromycin (82.5%). Based on the results, gentamycin and ciprofloxacin may be considered the drugs of choice for mastitis treatment whereas penicillin, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole and erythromycin were found to be poor in their efficacy to the isolates. In this study, 62.5% of the isolates (50 isolates) were multiple-drug resistance. Based on the results, it seems that gentamicin and ciprofloxacin are more appropriate drugs for the treatment of mastitis. However, to minimize the risk of resistant bacteria, it is necessary to perform antibiogram testing prior to antibiotic prescription and evaluate the antibiotic resistance pattern periodically in each geographical area.

Antibiotic resistance among gram-negative bacilli is currently one of the major challenges for the health system in developing countries. The aim of this study was to determine the frequency and antibiotic resistance pattern of common ESBL-producing gram negative bacilli isolated from clinical specimens of hospitalized patients in Falsafi Hospital in Gorgan.

In this descriptive cross-sectional study, during October to December 2016, clinical samples of hospitalized patients including urine, blood and wound specimens were examined for the presence of common Gram-negative bacilli. Then the drug resistance pattern of the isolates and the production of ESBLs were determined by disk diffusion and phenotypic methods.

Of 154 clinical samples, 100 samples were positive for gram-negative bacilli and 50 isolates of Escherichia coli, 38 isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and 12 isolates of Klebsiella pneumoniae were identified. All the isolates were resistant to ampicillin and co-trimoxazole antibiotics. 17% of the isolates were phenotypically ESBL positive and this enzyme had the highest frequency among K. pneumoniae isolates (41.6%).

The results of this study, in line with the results of other researchers, indicate high prevalence of ESBL in clinical isolates of K. pneumoniae. Therefore, third-generation cephalosporins are not recommended in treatment of infections caused by K. pneumonia as the first line drug.

Lactic cheese is traditionally produced from raw milk in some provinces of Iran. Therefore, presence of pathogenic bacteria in these cheeses can be dangerous to human health. The aim of this study was to evaluate the contamination rate of local lactic cheeses produced in Gorgan with Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Listeria monocytogenes.

Cheese samples were randomly collected from 5 supply centers of this product in Gorgan. The samples were transferred to sterile containers with dry ice to the Microbiology Laboratory of Gorgan Islamic Azad University. After enrichment in specific media, they were cultured in selective media according to standard methods.

In this study, 40 samples of lactating cheeses of bovine and sheep and 5 samples of pasteurized bovine cheeses were evaluated for possible contamination. According to the results, out of 20 cow cheese samples, only 2 (10%) and out of 20 sheep cheese samples, 6 ones (30%) were infected with Escherichia coli. Coagulase positive Staphylococcus aureus was observed in 3 samples of cow cheese (15%) and 5 sheep cheese samples (25%). Listeria monocytogenes was not detected in any of the cheese samples. Industrial pasteurized samples were also not contaminated with any of the bacteria studied.

The results showed that sheep cheeses were more contaminated to Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus compared to cow cheeses. Considering the presence of Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus in some local lactic cheeses supplied in Gorgan, it is necessary to consider hygienic actions more seriously and the use of pasteurized milk is recommended for production of mentioned cheeses.

Management of manure and chemical fertilizers application in the soil in terms of environmental impacts and performance of plants is important, especially in arid and semi-arid regions of Iran. A split plot experiment was carried out in a randomized complete block design with three replications at the research farm of Shahrekord University in 2014. Main factor was consisted of three levels of irrigation regimes including 100% (I1 or control), 75% (I2) and 50% (I3) of water requirement while 6 levels of manure application including 1) no amended fertilizer (control), 2) 25% urea fertilizer + 75% cattle manure 3) 50% urea fertilizer + 50% cattle manure 4) 75% urea fertilizer + 25% cattle manure 5) 100% urea fertilizer and 6) 100% cattle manure, were considered as subplot factor. Results showed that irrigation regime of I3 caused decreasing an contration of chlorophyll a, b and total, essential oil yield of flowering branch, leaf and stem while in caused 83 and 13.5 percent increase in the amount of carotenoids and proline compared to control, respectively. Fertilizer treatments, 25% urea fertilizer + 75% cattle manure, 50% urea fertilizer + 50% cattle manure, 75% urea fertilizer + 25% cattle manure, 100% urea fertilizer and 100% cattle manure caused significant increase in carotenoids content compared to control whereas the maximum carotenoids content with the average of 1.35 mg g-1 was obtained from the 25% urea fertilizer + 75% cattle manure treatment. A significant positive correlation was observed between chlorophyll a, b, total, essential oil percentage, essential oil yield of leaf and essential oil yield of flowering branches. Therefore, in order to obtain the maximum essential Moldavian balm under Shahrekord climatic condition, application of 50% urea + 50% cattle manure and full irrigation is recommended.