Guia de análises microbiológicas para cortes de aves in natura: elaboração e aplicação prática

An effective hygiene and sanitation inspection of meat and meat products is essential for its production and commercialization. For this reason, the national and international standards responsible for these products quality control employs microbiological analyses methods as quality control tools. In December of 2012, it was included in the Ministério da Agricultura Pecuária e Abastecimento (MAPA) website, a Microbiological Scope of food and water, which presents the replacement of some methods proposed by the Normative Instruction 62. Some of these methodologies are considered rapid, practical and convenient. However, other methodologies were still replaced by conventional ones, which presents disadvantages as incorrect interpretations of the microorganism phenotypical and biochemical characteristics, leading to the misinterpretation of test results. Therefore, the objective of this study is to develop a comprehensive, practical and illustrative guidebook of microbiological analysis for in natura poultry cuts. The methods addressed in this guide are the official standards analysis required by the poultry cuts legislation, which are the Escherichia coli count, the thermotolerant coliforms count, the aerobic plate count and the detection of Salmonella spp. The approached methodologies for these analysis will be the AOAC 998.08, the Normative Instruction 62 and the ISO 4833-1:2013 and ISO 6579:2002, respectively. In these events, it is expected to obtain an enlightening and approved guidebook evaluated by laboratory technicians, which will help reduce the analytical subjectivity leading to a more reliable interpretation of the test results.

Correlação entre o sinal mecanomiográfico e a escala modificada de Ashworth durante avaliação clínica da espasticidade

Spasticity is a common disorder in people who have upper motor neuron injury. The involvement may occur at different levels. The Modified Ashworth Scale (MAS) is the most used method to measure involvement levels. But it corresponds to a subjective evaluation. Mechanomyography (MMG) is an objective technique that quantifies the muscle vibration during the contraction and stretching events. So, it may assess the level of spasticity accurately. This study aimed to investigate the correlation between spasticity levels determined by MAS with MMG signal in spastic and not spastic muscles. In the experimental protocol, we evaluated 34 members of 22 volunteers, of both genders, with a mean age of 39.91 ± 13.77 years. We evaluated the levels of spasticity by MAS in flexor and extensor muscle groups of the knee and/or elbow, where one muscle group was the agonist and one antagonist. Simultaneously the assessment by the MAS, caught up the MMG signals. We used a custom MMG equipment to register and record the signals, configured in LabView platform. Using the MatLab computer program, it was processed the MMG signals in the time domain (median energy) and spectral domain (median frequency) for the three motion axes: X (transversal), Y (longitudinal) and Z (perpendicular). For bandwidth delimitation, we used a 3rd order Butterworth filter, acting in the range of 5-50 Hz. Statistical tests as Spearman's correlation coefficient, Kruskal-Wallis test and linear correlation test were applied. As results in the time domain, the Kruskal-Wallis test showed differences in median energy (MMGME) between MAS groups. The linear correlation test showed high linear correlation between MAS and MMGME for the agonist muscle as well as for the antagonist group. The largest linear correlation occurred between the MAS and MMG ME for the Z axis of the agonist muscle group (R2 = 0.9557) and the lowest correlation occurred in the X axis, for the antagonist muscle group (R2 = 0.8862). The Spearman correlation test also confirmed high correlation for all axes in the time domain analysis. In the spectral domain, the analysis showed an increase in the median frequency (MMGMF) in MAS’ greater levels. The highest correlation coefficient between MAS and MMGMF signal occurred in the Z axis for the agonist muscle group (R2 = 0.4883), and the lowest value occurred on the Y axis for the antagonist group (R2 = 0.1657). By means of the Spearman correlation test, the highest correlation occurred between the Y axis of the agonist group (0.6951; p <0.001) and the lowest value on the X axis of the antagonist group (0.3592; p <0.001). We conclude that there was a significantly high correlation between the MMGME and MAS in both muscle groups. Also between MMG and MAS occurred a significant correlation, however moderate for the agonist group, and low for the antagonist group. So, the MMGME proved to be more an appropriate descriptor to correlate with the degree of spasticity defined by the MAS.