Studio sull'inattivazione di virus enterici con composti ossidanti e alte pressioni idrostatiche. Sviluppo di recenti metodi di rilevamento virale in campioni alimentari contaminati.

Viruses causing gastroenteritis, like Norovirus, are a great problem for health all over the world. During the PhD period I studied the inactivation of these viruses using hydrogen peroxide and high-hydrostatic pressures; moreover I evaluated the efficacy of different methods for the detection of enteric viruses in food samples. The results obtained for the inactivation with hydrogen peroxide and high-hydrostatic pressure are very interesting and it was possible to obtain total inactivations even at low disinfectant concentration and at low pressures. The evaluation of detection methods has shown the higher efficacy of a protocol, which involves proteinase K, to elute the viral particles from the food matrix.