Evaluation of antimicrobial resistance and virulence of enterococci from equipment surfaces, raw materials and traditional cheeses

6533b7d5fe1ef96bd1263e81

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Evaluation of antimicrobial resistance and virulence of enterococci from equipment surfaces, raw materials and traditional cheeses

Raimondo Gaglio Giancarlo Moschetti Maria De Fátima Silva Lopes Luca Settanni Cátia Marques Constança Pomba Natacha Couto

subject

0301 basic medicine Tetracycline Food Handling Virulence Factors 030106 microbiology Virulence Microbial Sensitivity Tests Antimicrobial resistance Microbiology Microbiology 03 medical and health sciences Antibiotic resistance Bacterial Proteins Cheese Drug Resistance Bacterial medicine Animal rennet Animal rennet Antimicrobial resistance Enterococcus Raw milk Traditional cheese Virulence Wooden vat Animals Humans Gram-Positive Bacterial Infections biology Virulence Raw milk Traditional cheese Animal rennet Antimicrobial resistance Enterococcus Raw milk Traditional cheese Virulence Wooden vat General Medicine Raw milk biochemical phenomena metabolism and nutrition biology.organism_classification Antimicrobial Wooden vat Anti-Bacterial Agents Erythromycin Ciprofloxacin 030104 developmental biology Milk Enterococcus Equipment and Supplies Italy Streptomycin Equipment Contamination Cattle Enterococcus Food Science medicine.drug Settore AGR/16 - Microbiologia Agraria

description

Forty enterococci isolated along the production chains of three traditional cheeses (PDO Pecorino Siciliano, PDO Vastedda della Valle del Belìce, and Caciocavallo Palermitano) made in Sicily (southern Italy) were studied for the assessment of their antibiotic resistance and virulence by a combined phenotypic/genotypic approach. A total of 31 Enterococcus displayed resistance to at least one or more of the antimicrobials tested. The strains exhibited high percentages of resistance to erythromycin (52.5%), ciprofloxacin (35.0%), quinupristin–dalfopristin (20.0%), tetracycline (17.5%), and high-level streptomycin (5.0%). The presence of tet(M), cat(pC221), and aadE genes for resistance to tetracycline, chloramphenicol, and streptomycin, respectively, was registered in all strains with resistance phenotype. The erm(B) gene was not detected in any erythromycin-resistant strain. The Enterococcus strains were further tested by PCR for the presence of virulence genes, namely, gelE, asa1, efaA, ace, and esp. Twenty strains were positive for all virulence genes tested. Among the enterococci isolated from final cheeses, three strains (representing 33.3% of total cheese strains) were sensible to all antimicrobials tested and did not carry any virulence factor. Although this study confirmed that the majority of dairy enterococci are vectors for the dissemination of antimicrobial resistance and virulence genes, only two strains showed a high resistance to aminoglycosides, commonly administered to combat enterococci responsible for human infections. Furthermore, the presence of the strains E. casseliflavus FMAC163, E. durans FMAC134B, and E. faecium PON94 without risk determinants, found at dominating levels over the Enterococcus populations in the processed products, stimulates further investigations for their future applications in cheese making. All strains devoid of the undesired traits were isolated from stretched cheeses. Thus, this cheese typology represents an interesting environment to deepen the studies on the risk/benefit role of enterococci in fermented foods for their qualified presumption of safety (QPS) assessment.

year	journal	country	edition	language
2016-11-07

http://hdl.handle.net/10447/191830