Skip to main content
ARS Home » Southeast Area » Stoneville, Mississippi » Warmwater Aquaculture Research Unit » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #341095
Research Project: Umbrella Project for Food Safety

Location: Warmwater Aquaculture Research Unit

Title: The effects of x-ray treatments on bioaccumulated murine norovirus-1 (MNV-1) and survivability, inherent microbiota, color, and firmness of Atlantic oysters (Crassostrea virginica) during storage at 5°C for 20 days

Author
item WU, Y - Mississippi State University
item CHANG, S - Mississippi State University
item NANNAPANENI, R - Mississippi State University
item ZHANG, Y - Mississippi State University
item COKER, R - Mississippi State University
item MAHMOUD, B - Mississippi State University

Submitted to: Food Control
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/19/2016
Publication Date: 3/1/2017
Citation: Wu, Y.M., Chang, S., Nannapaneni, R., Zhang, Y., Coker, R., Mahmoud, B. 2017. The effects of x-ray treatments on bioaccumulated murine norovirus-1 (MNV-1) and survivability, inherent microbiota, color, and firmness of Atlantic oysters (Crassostrea virginica) during storage at 5°C for 20 days. Food Control. 73:1189-1194.

Interpretive Summary: Human norovirus (HuNoV) causes the most common foodborne illnesses in the United States. The CDC estimates 5,461,731 cases of illnesses, 14,663 hospitalizations and 149 deaths annually related to this pathogen. X-ray irradiation is a technology that can be used to inactivate pathogens and at the same time to retain food quality. To our knowledge, this is the first report about the X-ray inactivation of internalized MNV-1 on whole-shell oysters. The results of this study indicate that the efficacy of X-ray irradiation against internalized MNV-1 increased with increasing X-ray doses.

Technical Abstract: In this study, we investigated the inactivation of human norovirus (HuNoV) surrogate Murine norovirus (MNV-1) by X-ray in whole-shell Atlantic oysters (Crassostrea virginica). We also investigated the effects of X-ray treatments on the survivability, inherent microbiota, color, and firmness of treated whole-shell Atlantic oysters during storage at 5 oC for 20 days. Plaque assays revealed that X-ray significantly reduced the population of internalized MNV-1 in live oysters from 4.3 ± 0.4 log PFU g-1 to 3.6 ± 0.5, 3.2 ± 0.2, 2.8 ± 0.2, and 2.5 ± 0.1 log PFU g-1, by 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, and 4.0 kGy X-ray, respectively. The population of MNV-1 was reduced to less than 2.0 log PFU g-1 at 5.0 kGy X-ray. The survivability of live oysters was not significantly affected by treatment with 1.0 and 5.0 kGy X-ray, in comparison with the control, for up to 15 and 10 days, respectively, during storage at 5 oC. Treatment of whole-shell oysters by 5.0 kGy X-ray significantly reduced the inherent microbiota and kept them lower than the control until day 20. No significant effect of X-ray treatment on oyster color or firmness was detected.