Fowl typhoid, a septicaemic disease of poultry, is caused by Salmonella Gallinarum and leads to severe economic losses. The aim of the present study was to isolate, select and characterize indigenous probiotic lactobacilli with anti-Salmonella Gallinarum activity. A total 55 lactobacilli were isolated from the caeca and ileum parts of healthy chickens and identified to species level by 16S rDNA sequencing. All the isolates were initially screened for antimicrobial activity and selected isolates were further subjected to in vitro evaluation of probiotic properties. Lactobacilli isolates (n = 21) showed varying levels of activity (08–18 mm) against Salmonella Gallinarum. These selected isolates also showed tolerance to acidic conditions (pH 3 and 4). Out of these 21 isolates, 13 showed growth (>0.5 OD at 600 nm) 0.3% bile salts. Moreover, these isolates also had the ability of auto-aggregation (20.05 ± 0.62%–50.70 ± 1.40%), and co-aggregation with Salmonella Gallinarum (5.22 ± 0.21%–42.07 ± 0.70%). Results revealed that lactobacilli had a higher level of resistance to vancomycin (100%), streptomycin (100%), ciprofloxacin (95%), gentamicin (90%), doxycycline (90%), oxytetracycline (85%), and bacitracin (80%), and a lower level of resistance to penicillin (33%), erythromycin (28%), chloramphenicol (23%), fusidic acid (23%) and amoxicillin (4%). The Limosilactobacillus fermentum PC-10 and PC-76 were sensitive to most of the antibiotics. The overall results revealed that two Limosilactobacillus fermentum strains (PC-10 and PC-76) fulfill the in vitro selection criteria of probiotics, i.e, tolerance to low pH, resistance to bile salts, auto-aggregation, co-aggregation with Salmonella Gallinarum, and absence of acquired antibiotic resistance. The Limosilactobacillus fermentum PC-10 and PC-76 also inhibited the (>5 log10) growth of Salmonella Gallinarum in co-culture assay. It is concluded that Limosilactobacillus fermentum PC-10 and PC-76 may be further investigated and developed as anti-Salmonella Gallinarum probiotics for poultry.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections has affected more than 15 million people and, as of 22 July 2019, caused deaths of more than 0.6 million individuals globally. With the excretion of SARS-CoV-2 in the stool of symptomatic and asymptomatic COVID-19 patients, its genome detection in the sewage water can be used as a powerful epidemiological tool to predict the number of positive cases in a population. This study was conducted to detect SARS-CoV-2 genome in sewage water during the lockdown. Sewage samples, from 28 pre-selected sites, were collected on alternate days from 13-25 July, 2020 from two selected areas [Johar Town (n = 05) and Township (n = 23)], where smart lockdown were implemented by the government authorities on 9 ^th July, 2020. Genomic RNA was extracted and the SARS-CoV-2 was detected and quantified using commercially available kit through Real-Time PCR. Out of 28, sixteen samples were positive on day one while 19, 17, 23, 17, 05 and 09 samples were positive on day 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, and 13, respectively. Results revealed a decreased positivity rate and SARS CoV-2 genome copies in sewage towards the end of lockdown however few sampling sites did not follow a clear pattern indicating the complexities in sewage water based surveillance i.e time of sampling etc. Hourly sampling from two sites for 24 hours also revealed the impact of sampling time on detection of SARS-CoV-2 genome in sewage. Results of current study insinuate a possible role of sewage-based COVID-19 surveillance in monitoring and execution of smart lockdowns.

Iodine complexes have known antimicrobial properties along with reported in-vitro antiviral activity for several viruses. Renessans is one such product with iodine complexes and ascorbic acid. The present study was designed to determine its efficacy for SARS-CoV-2 in Rhesus macaque. Rhesus macaque were assigned to: A) prophylactic group (n = 3), (B) treatment group (n = 3), (C) infection control group (n = 4), and (D) negative control group (n = 4). Groups A, B, and C were challenged with 2 × 10⁶ TCID of SARS-CoV-2. The prophylactic group (A) was administered Renessans from 5 days before infection till 8 days postinfection (DPI). The treatment group (B) was administered Renessans from 3 till 8 DPI. Group C was administered water-insoluble fractions only. Nasal swabs from all monkeys of groups A, B, and C remained positive for SARS-CoV-2 till 2 and 7 DPI, while the swabs became negative for groups A and B at 14 DPI. Likewise, fecal matter of monkeys in group A returned negative results during the experiment, while that of group B had significantly decreased viral load (10^1.5 genome copies/mL) compared to group C (10³ genome copies/mL). Hence, it is concluded that Renessans has in-vivo SARS-CoV-2 activity and may result in early clearance of SARS-CoV-2.