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Prevalence and Characterization of Cronobacter spp. from Various Foods, Medicinal Plants, and Environmental Samples

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Abstract

Dairy or non-dairy based products were explored to determine the prevalence, molecular characterization, and antibiotic susceptibility of Cronobacter spp. The isolation was done as per ISO 22964:2006 on chromogenic media followed by further confirmation by biochemical- and 16S rRNA-based identification. From 219 samples, the chromogenic agar assay and biochemical tests yielded presumptive 45 isolates. Among them, only 36 isolates showed 282 bp band amplified from ITS-G gene confirming as Cronobacter sakazakii. The Cronobacter spp. prevalence was highest in herbs and spices (34 %) while environmental samples had contamination rates of 23 % indicating plants as a possible reservoir of this pathogen. All the isolates were resistant to β-lactam derivatives (68 %), macrolides (88.6 %), and aminoglycosides (79.9 %) but susceptible to phenicoles (31.6 %) and tetracyclines (15 %) derivatives. The results emphasize the screening of plant materials before their incorporation in food matrices.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Dept. of Science and Technology, Govt. of India and Jaypee University of Information Technology (JUIT), Solan, India for providing financial support and essential facilities required for the research work.

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  1. Department of Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, Jaypee University of Information Technology, Waknaghat, Solan, 173234, India

    Niharika Singh, Gunjan Goel & Mamta Raghav

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  1. Niharika Singh
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Correspondence to Gunjan Goel.

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Singh, N., Goel, G. & Raghav, M. Prevalence and Characterization of Cronobacter spp. from Various Foods, Medicinal Plants, and Environmental Samples. Curr Microbiol 71, 31–38 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-015-0816-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-015-0816-8

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