Helicobacter pylori Is Present at Quantifiable Levels in Raw Vegetables in the Mediterranean Area of Spain

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The communication "Helicobacter pylori is present at quantifable levels in raw vegetables in the Mediterranean area of Spain" contains a description of a study on the presence of Helicobacter pylori in 100 samples of leafy vegetables. The english used in the study needs a correction by a native speaker.  Below the detailed comments.

Line 27 - CFU instead of UFC

Lines 37, 68, 74, 158, 196, 200 - The citation number in brackets should be situated at the end of the sentence.

Figure 2 - Add to the description of Figure 2 that this is an examle of gel electrophoresis. Add the lane numbers to the photo and please check if you can provide a picture of a better quality since the bands in the first three lanes are hard to see. Check if you have the correct description of a bp ladder.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The manuscript by García-Ferrús et al. is undoubtedly original, well written and conducted, with a relevant contribution to the understanding of the epidemiology of Helicobacter pylori in raw vegetables in the Mediterranean area of Spain. I support its possible publication after appropriate modifications as outlined below:

Line 89-90: The authors need to justify your choice of number of collected samples in the study. In this regard, the authors need to refer to a statistical model, based on which they can validate the survey results, pointed out the previously estimated prevalence. So, the authors must convince the scientific community that they results are completely supportable by statistical tools.

Line 93: „Each sample 93 was composed for 5 individual units.” – here the authors need to insert a reference, justifying the chosed five units

Lines 95-102: no any reference is indicated

Line 116: please insert a reference after the paragraph

Line 123: Please change hyphen “-“ to minus sign”−“. Please revise carefully this issue throughout the manuscript.

Line 164: when you express overall prevalence values, for a better understanding to the reader, please insert in the brackets the total number of positive samples/total investigated samples and the 95% confidence interval values in brackets

Lines 181-182: on the gel image please indicate the number of the referred line (unclear)

Line 188: - Regarding the sequences: how was the quality of the sequences analyzed? Using Phred Phrap. It would be useful for the authors to complete their investigations with other bioinformatic tools, calculating the nucleotide diversity, the polymorphic level (Haplotype diversity - [Hd]), number of variable sites and the average number of nucleotide differences (K) of the isolates. This action, if will be performed, will results in the insertion of new sentences in the main chapters of the manuscript. If the authors not will be able to address this concern, they need to highlight these issues as study limitation or further perspectives.

Line 212: within the discussion section the authors need to mention the lack of the screening of antimicrobial resistance of the obtained isolates, which can constitute a possible further perspective

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Correction :

Line 24

Line 181 (Figure 2)

Line 214

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 4 Report

The manuscript "Helicobacter pylori is present at quantifiable levels in raw vegetables in the Mediterranean area of Spain" shows that this kind of food can be vehicle of the pathogen. H. pylori is unlikely to grow in foods and its survival depends on intrinsic and extrinsic parameters. Beaside, this microorganism is extremly sensitive to those parameters. The presence of the microorganism in vegetables is of concern since lettuce  is consummed raw. Depending on the variety of spinach, it is also consummed raw. 

The methodology is appropriate and results are well presented and discussed. However, we suggested that the Author revise the English language because there are quite a few mistakes throughout the text. Some of them are pointed out below:

L17: by means the detection: by means of detection

L23: rage or range?

L28: is it necessary the word "contamination" in this context?

L.33: Current trend in adopting" instead of Current trend of adopting

L.43 regarding to this sentence "the high capability of Helicobacter spp. to disseminate in the environment (water and foods)": we suggest to the Authors to make some remarks on the period of survival on the environment as well on their ability to multiply  in soil, food and water.

L58-65: It would be interesting if the Authors cite the country or the area where the research where performed. Is the data from a developed country or developing country? 

L.80: "from" instead of during

L118: instead of raw lettuce, please use "non-inoculated lettuce" because the artificially contaminated lettuce is also raw lettuce, isn´t it? You can also use spiked lettuce for "artificially contaminated lettuce". 

L166: "correlation coefficient of"  instead of "coefficient of correlation"

L189-192: revise. Re-word.

L.195: "consumed raw" instead of raw-consumed

L.199: please re-word. It´s confusing.

L.201-203: it´s confusing

L.207: Mediterranean

L.209: Why did you considered only lettuce if H. pylori was also detected in spinach and chard?

L.217: "Since this pathogen has demonstrated to be capable to proliferate in lettuce": are you sure????? And what about survival? You can not draw this conclusion from your results.

Again, revise the language.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf