title: High pressure processing treatment prevents embryonation of eggs of Trichuris vulpis and Ascaris suum and induces delay in development of eggs.
abstract: High hydrostatic pressure processing (HPP) is an effective non-thermal treatment used to inactivate pathogens from a variety of food and food products. It has been extensively examined using prokaryotic organisms and protozoan's but has had limited study on metazoans. Treatment using HPP has been shown to be effective in inactivating nematode larvae in food and preventing embryonation of Ascaris suum eggs. We conducted experiments using eggs of the canine whipworm Trichuris vulpis collected from naturally infected dogs and A. suum eggs from naturally infected pigs. We observed a delay in development of eggs of T. vulpis in a preliminary experiment and conducted 2 experiments to test the hypothesis that appropriate HPP levels can induce a delay in embryonation of nematode eggs. In experiment 1, nonembryonated T. vulpis eggs in tap water were packaged in sealable bags and exposed to 138-600 megapascals (MPa; 1 MPa=10 atm=147 psi) for 60s in a commercial HPP unit. In a second experiment, nonembryonated eggs of A. suum were exposed to 138-600 MPa and treated for 60s in the same commercial HPP unit. Embyronation of T. vulpis eggs was delayed by 4 and 5 days for eggs treated with 207 and 241 MPa but eventually eggs developed and the numbers of embryonated eggs was similar to controls on day 55. Embryonation of T. vulpis eggs treated with 345 or 350 MPa was delayed by 9 days and never reached more than 5% of eggs embryonated. On day 55 post treatment, 95% of control nontreated T. vulpis eggs were embryonated, 100-65% of eggs treated with 138-276 MPa were embryonated, a maximum of 5% of eggs treated with 345-350 MPa were embryonated, and 0% of eggs treated with ≥ 400 MPa were embryonated. T. vulpis eggs treated with ≥ 400 MPa did not undergo cell division. Embryrnation of A. suum eggs was delayed by 4, 10, and 16 days for eggs treated with 207, 241, and 250MPa, respectively, compared to nontreated control eggs. A. suum eggs treated with 207 MPa eventually embryonated to similar % embryonation values as controls and 138 MPa treated eggs but eggs treated with 241 or 250 MPa were always <5% embryonated. A. suum eggs treated with ≥ 300 MPa did not undergo cell division. On the final day of examination at day 56 after treatment, the % of embryonated eggs was 92% nontreated controls, 94% treated with 138 MPa, 84% treated with 207 MPa, 2% treated with 241 or 250 MPa, and 0% treated with 276, 200, 345, 400, or 414 MPa, respectively.
authors.affiliation: Department of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, Johnson C. Smith University, Charlotte, NC 28216, USA.
authors.forename: Alexa C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Rosypal
authors.forename: Anne M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Zajac
authors.forename: George J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Flick
authors.forename: Dwight D
authors.initials: DD
authors.lastname: Bowman
authors.forename: David S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Lindsay
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017165:Ascaris suum / Q000196:embryology / Q000502:physiology*; D005511:Food Handling / Q000379:methods; D006874:Hydrostatic Pressure; D010063:Ovum / Q000502:physiology*; D014258:Trichuris / Q000196:embryology / Q000502:physiology*