Considering the growing consumption of artisanal foods worldwide, we aimed to evaluate the microbial safety of Serro artisanal cheese (SAC), produced in Minas Gerais State, Brazil. This cheese is produced with raw milk using 1 of 2 natural starter cultures: "pingo" and "rala." A total of 53 SAC samples (pingo = 8; rala = 45) were obtained from different farmers and subjected to conventional and molecular assays to detect and enumerate Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella spp., coagulase-positive staphylococci (CPS), diarrheagenic Escherichia coli, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and Brucella abortus. The SAC samples were also subjected to an ELISA to detect classical staphylococcal enterotoxins (CSE: SEA, SEB, SEC, SED, SEE) and to PCR assays to detect staphylococcal enterotoxin-related genes (sea, seb, sec, sed, see). Coagulase-positive staphylococci isolates were obtained and tested by the same assays to detect their potential in CSE production and presence of CSE-related genes. None of the SAC samples showed any of the screened food-borne pathogens and zoonotic agents, and none showed the presence of CSE by phenotypic and genotypic approaches. Despite the absence of microbial hazards, mean counts of CPS in SAC samples were 5.2 log cfu/g (pingo starter) and 4.6 log cfu/g (rala starter), indicating poor hygiene practices during production. None of the tested CPS isolates (n = 116) produced CSE or presented CSE-related genes. Despite the relative microbial safety, hygienic conditions during SAC production must be improved to meet official guidelines established in Brazil.

The aims of this study were to investigate the presence of Leishmania infantum and possible co-infection with Anaplasma platys, Babesia vogeli, Ehrlichia canis and Toxoplasma gondii in the brain of 24 dogs naturally infected by L. infantum. A total of 24 mongrel adult dogs (22 clinically affected, 2 with neurological signs, and 2 subclinically infected) aged between 2 and 5 yrs, naturally infected by visceral leishmaniasis (VL), were selected. Fragments from meninges, frontal cortex, thalamus, cerebellum, choroid plexus of the lateral ventricles and fourth ventricle were collected, mixed and tested by real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Leishmania infantum DNA was detected in 95.8% (23/24) of the infected dogs, including the subclinically infected. A total of 14/24 (58.3%) dogs were co-infected by E. canis and L. infantum, 4/24 (16.7%) were co-infected by E. canis, B. vogeli and L. infantum, 2/24 (8.3%) were co-infected by B. vogeli and L. infantum, and 1/24 (4.2%) dog was co-infected by ...