Aim: The study was carried out with aim to isolate Staphylococcus aureus from milk and milk products (pedha and curd) and determine antibiogram pattern of S. aureus isolates. Materials and Methods: During 9 months duration of study a total of 160 milk and milk product samples (pedha and curd) were collected from different places in and around Anand city such as milk collection centre of Co-operative milk dairies, cattle farms, individual household, milk vendors and sweet shops. The samples were collected under aseptic precautions and were enriched in Peptone Water (PW) followed by direct plating on selective media viz. Baird-Parker Agar. The presumptive S. aureus isolates were identified by biochemical tests. Antibiogram pattern of S. aureus to antimicrobial agents were evaluated by disk diffusion method. Results: Analysis of result revealed that out of total 160 samples of milk (100) and milk products i.e. curd (30) and pedha (30) resulted in the isolation of 10 isolates (6.25 %) of S. aureus. In the present study S. aureus isolates were found variably resistant to the antibiotics tested. The S. aureus isolates showed highest sensitivity towards cephalothin (100.00 %), co-trimoxazole (100.00 %), cephalexin (100.00 %) and methicillin (100.00 %) followed by gentamicin (90.00 %), ciprofloxacin (80.00 %), oxacillin (70.00 %), streptomycin (60.00 %) and ampicillin (60.00 %). The pattern clearly indicated that the overall high percent of S. aureus isolates were resistant to Penicillin-G (100.00 %) followed by ampicillin (40.00 %), oxytetracycline and oxacillin (20.00 %) and streptomycin and gentamicin (10.00 %) Conclusions: Results clearly suggested a possibility of potential public health threat of S. aureus resulting from contamination of milk and milk products with pathogenic bacteria is mainly due to unhygienic processing, handling and unhygienic environment. [Vet World 2013; 6(1.000): 10-13

Aim:The aim was to detect virulence gene associated with the Salmonella serovars isolated from pork and Slaughterhouse environment.Materials and Methods:Salmonella isolates (n=37) used in this study were isolated from 270 pork and slaughter house environmental samples collected from the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation Slaughter House, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. Salmonella serovars were isolated and identified as per BAM USFDA method and serotyped at National Salmonella and Escherichia Centre, Central Research Institute, Kasauli (Himachal Pradesh, India). Polymerase chain reaction technique was used for detection of five genes, namely invA, spvR, spvC, fimA and stn among different serovars of Salmonella.Results:Out of a total of 270 samples, 37 (13.70%) Salmonella were isolated with two serovars, namely Enteritidis and Typhimurium. All Salmonella serovars produced 284 bp invA gene, 84 bp fimA and 260 bp amplicon for enterotoxin (stn) gene whereas 30 isolates possessed 310 bp spvR gene, but no isolate possessed spvC gene.Conclusion:Presence of invA, fimA and stn gene in all isolates shows that they are the specific targets for Salmonella identification and are capable of producing gastroenteric illness to humans, whereas 20 Typhimurium serovars and 10 Enteritidis serovars can able to produce systemic infection.

Aim:During the last decades, number of food poisoning cases due to Campylobacter occurred, immensely. After poultry, raw milk acts as a second main source of Campylobacter. Therefore, the present study was undertaken to detect the prevalence of Campylobacters in milk and milk products and to know the antibiotic sensitivity and virulence gene profile of Campylobacter spp. in Anand city, Gujarat, India.Material and Methods:A total of 240 samples (85 buffalo milk, 65 cow milk, 30 cheese, 30 ice-cream and 30 paneer) were collected from the different collection points in Anand city. The samples were processed by microbiological culture method, and presumptive isolates were further confirmed by genus and species-specific polymerase chain reaction using previously reported primer. The isolates were further subjected to antibiotic susceptibility assay and virulence gene detection.Result:Campylobacter species were detected in 7 (2.91%) raw milk samples whereas none of the milk product was positive. All the isolate identified were Campylobacter jejuni. Most of the isolates showed resistance against nalidixic acid, ciprofloxacin, and tetracyclin. All the isolates have three virulence genes cadF, cdtB and flgR whereas only one isolate was positive for iamA gene and 6 isolates were positive for fla gene.Conclusion:The presence of Campylobacter in raw milk indicates that raw milk consumption is hazardous for human being and proper pasteurization of milk and adaptation of hygienic condition will be necessary to protect the consumer from this zoonotic pathogen.

Aim : The study was carried out with aim to isolate Escherichia coli from raw milk samples and determine antibiogram pattern of E. coli isolates. Materials and Methods: During 6 months duration of study a total of 100 raw milk samples were collected from different places in and around Anand city such as individual household, cattle farms, milk collection centres of Co-operative milk dairies and milk vendors. All raw milk samples were enriched in peptone water and inoculated on selective media and various biochemical tests were performed for confirmation of isolates. Antibiogram pattern of E.coli to antimicrobial agents was evaluated by disk diffusion method. E. coli isolates were sent to National Salmonella and Escherichia Centre, Central Research Institute, Kasauli, Himachal Pradesh for serotyping. Results: The result of present study revealed that out of 100 samples, 38 samples were found contaminated with E.coli. Antibiogram pattern revealed high resistance against ampicillin (100 %), whereas moderate resistance was observed for streptomycin (57.89 %), oxytetracycline (47.37 %) and amoxy-clav (42.11 %). Also lesser percentage of resistance was observed for co-trimoxazole (13.16 %) and chloramphenicol (5.26 %). Serotypes detected were O24 (7 isolates), followed by O36 (1 isolate), O89 (1 isolate), O91 (1 isolate) and O153(1 isolate). Conclusions: Results suggested a possibility of potential public health threat of E.coli originating from raw milk sources.

Aim: The study was undertaken to isolate pathogenic E. coli from milk and various milk products, detection of virulence gene using Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and investigate their antibiotic sensitivity pattern. Materials and Methods: Altogether 250 milk and various milk products samples consisting of raw milk (50), cheese (50), ice-cream (50), mawa (50) and dahi (50) were collected from milk vendors, retail shops located in Anand city, under aseptic precautions. For the enrichment of the organism from the collected samples, MacConkey broth was used and inoculation was carried out on MacConkey agar and EMB agar. Later on, to confirm the isolates, various biochemical tests such as IMViC test, Urease test were performed. Evaluation of antibiotic sensitivity pattern of E. coli was assessed by disk diffusion method. Finally the E. coli isolates were screened for the presence of virulence associated genes by PCR . Results: The prevalence of E. coli was observed 32 % in the samples comprising of milk (52.00%), cheese (28.00%), icecream (20.00%), mawa (44.00%), and dahi (16.00%). Antibiotic sensitivity was recorded high for Co-trimoxazole (100%) followed by Gentamicin (96.73%), Trimithoprime (93.47%) and Doxycycline hydochloride (92.39%). Least sensitivity was recorded for Ampicillin (8.69%). In this study, out of 80 E. coli isolates, 25 isolates (31.25%) were positive for stx genes, of which 7 (8.75%) isolates were positive for stx1 gene only, while 12 (15.00%) isolates were positive for stx2 gene only and 5 (6.25%) isolates were positive for both stx1 and stx2, 7 isolates (8.75%) were positive for eaeA gene and all the isolate were negetive for rfb O157 gene. Conclusions: Current study supports the finding that raw milk and various milk products can be regarded as critical source of pathogenic E. coli This explains the need of strict monitoring and surveillance for effective measures of hygiene and sanitary practice during production of milk and various milk products. [Vet World 2013; 6(8.000): 541-545