Biofilms are mono- or multispecies microbial communities enclosed in an extracellular matrix (EPS). They have high potential for dissemination and are difficult to remove. In addition, biofilms formed by multidrug-resistant strains (MDRs) are even more aggravated if we consider antimicrobial resistance (AMR) as an important public health issue. Quorum sensing (QS) and horizontal gene transfer (HGT) are mechanisms that significantly contribute to the recalcitrance (resistance and tolerance) of biofilms, making them more robust and resistant to conventional sanitation methods. These mechanisms coordinate different strategies involved in AMR, such as activation of a quiescent state of the cells, moderate increase in the expression of the efflux pump, decrease in the membrane potential, antimicrobial inactivation, and modification of the antimicrobial target and the architecture of the EPS matrix itself. There are few studies investigating the impact of the use of inhibitors on the mechanisms of recalcitrance and its impact on the microbiome. Therefore, more studies to elucidate the effect and applications of these methods in the food production chain and the possible combination with antimicrobials to establish new strategies to control MDR biofilms are needed.

The method of Salmonella detection recommended is cultural, but it is laborious, presents a high consumption of material, and requires about five days for presumptive results. Immunosensor is an alternative tool that has shown promising and rapid results, although many devices have their performance evaluated only under buffering conditions and few achieve the validation stage. The objective was to perform a pre-collaborative validation of an electrochemical immunosensor assembled on screen-printed electrodes for the detection of Salmonella sp. in milk. The antibodies were immobilized by cysteamine self-assembled monolayer. The sandwich-type amperometric immunosensor was evaluated for contaminated raw and whole UHT milk and compared to performance with a gold standard reference method (BAM) according to AOAC recommendations for a single laboratory. A binary response (positive/negative) of the immunosensor was used based on a cut off established from current electric obtained for the absence of the pathogen. There was no significant difference for the results of the biosensor and the reference method, in the absence and the levels from 10¹ to 10³ CFU mL⁻¹ of Salmonella Typhimurium for the two types of milk. This result indicates the efficiency of the biosensor in detecting the pathogen into a complex matrix.

Resumo O desenvolvimento de novos métodos de análise microbiológica requer uma avaliação da igualdade ou superioridade deste em relação a um método padrão ouro − método rotineiramente utilizado. Este processo de avaliação denomina-se validação. O método é validado se seu desempenho estiver satisfatoriamente de acordo com os parâmetros analisados. Neste trabalho, abordamos os critérios para a validação de novos métodos de análise microbiológica da AOAC, FDA e da ISO 16140.