Antibiotics resistance and toxin profiles of Bacillus cereus-group isolates from fresh vegetables from German retail markets

Abstract

BackgroundThis study aimed to evaluate the safety of raw vegetable products present on the German market regarding toxin-producing Bacillus cereus sensu lato (s.l.) group bacteria.ResultsA total of 147 B. cereus s.l. group strains isolated from cucumbers, carrots, herbs, salad leaves and ready-to-eat mixed salad leaves were analyzed. Their toxinogenic potential was assessed by multiplex PCR targeting the hemolysin BL (hbl) component D (hblD), non-hemolytic enterotoxin (nhe) component A (nheA), cytotoxin K-2 (cytK-2) and the cereulide (ces) toxin genes. In addition, a serological test was used to detect Hbl and Nhe toxins. On the basis of PCR and serological results, none of the strains were positive for the cereulide protein/genes, while 91.2, 83.0 and 37.4% were positive for the Hbl, Nhe and CytK toxins or their genes, respectively. Numerous strains produced multiple toxins. Generally, strains showed resistance against the β-lactam antibiotics such as penicillin G and cefotaxim (100%), as well as amoxicillin/clavulanic acid combination and ampicillin (99.3%). Most strains were susceptible to ciprofloxacin (99.3%), chloramphenicol (98.6%), amikacin (98.0%), imipenem (93.9%), erythromycin (91.8%), gentamicin (88.4%), tetracycline (76.2%) and trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole combination (52.4%). The genomes of eight selected strains were sequenced. The toxin gene profiles detected by PCR and serological test mostly agreed with those from whole-genome sequence data.ConclusionsOur study showed that B. cereus s.l. strains encoding toxin genes occur in products sold on the German market and that these may pose a health risk to the consumer if present at elevated levels. Furthermore, a small percentage of these strains harbor antibiotic resistance genes. The presence of these bacteria in fresh produce should, therefore, be monitored to guarantee their safety.

Prevalence, Virulence Feature, Antibiotic Resistance and MLST Typing of Bacillus cereus Isolated From Retail Aquatic Products in China

“…Moreover, the prevalence of the nheABC cluster in our isolates is higher than that in food products of Poland (78.6% for nheABC ; Berthold-Pluta et al, 2019 ). cytK - 2 was detected in 93.1% of the isolates (256/275), which is much higher than the rate of previous reports (37.4–73%; Gao et al, 2018 ; Fiedler et al, 2019 ; Yu et al, 2019 ). Moreover, the proportion (>5%; 14/275) of the emetic strain is higher than the general level around the world ( Chaabouni et al, 2015 ; Fiedler et al, 2019 ).…”

“…cytK - 2 was detected in 93.1% of the isolates (256/275), which is much higher than the rate of previous reports (37.4–73%; Gao et al, 2018 ; Fiedler et al, 2019 ; Yu et al, 2019 ). Moreover, the proportion (>5%; 14/275) of the emetic strain is higher than the general level around the world ( Chaabouni et al, 2015 ; Fiedler et al, 2019 ). The cesB -positive strains we isolated had both psychrotrophic and mesophilic signatures ( Table 2 and Supplementary Figure S4 ), corresponding to an intermediate genotype according to von Stetten et al, 1998 .…”

Biogenic Silver Nanoparticles Synthesis from New Record Aquatic Bacteria of Nile Tilapia and Evaluation of their Biological Activity

“…The growing antimicrobial resistances in modern clinical pathology and medicine interest and focus on bioactive compounds from natural products in order to generate new and novel antimicrobials in general and particular antibiotics (Fiedler et al 2019). Bacilli have capability able to synthesis more than two dozen of antibiotics with variety in function and structures as they well known for the production of a vast array of structurally unrelated antimicrobial compounds.…”

Antibiotic resistance profile of local thermophilic Bacillus licheniformis isolated from Maysan province soil

“…The MIC test was susceptible to tetracycline (8.0 mg / litre), vancomycin (4.0 mg / litre), and gentamicin (4.0 mg / litre), but was streptomycin resistant (Adimpong et al, 2012). Moreover, disc diffusion assay was reported for antibiotic resistance profiles in the genus of Bacillus particularly for B. cereus (Gao et al, 2018;Fiedler et al, 2019;Park et al, 2020), in contrast very few was reported for B. licheniformis (Jeong et al, 2017;Meneghetti et al, 2018). Because of the limitation of data which is available about the resistance of B. licheniformis and to provide a guidance value to clinicians encountering possibly B. licheniformis infections; this study was aimed to detect the antibiotic resistance profile of local thermophilic B. licheniformis isolated from soil in Maysan Province, Iraq.…”