Isolation and Characterization of Cronobacter from Desiccated Foods in Korea

Abstract

A total of 115 desiccated food samples, including agricultural and marine products, were investigated for the presence of Cronobacter. Cronobacter species were characterized with biochemical tests. Antibiotic resistance was assessed with the disk diffusion method, and the molecular subtypes of Cronobacter isolates were identified using an automated repetitive sequence-based PCR (rep-PCR) system. A total of 18 (15.7%) Cronobacter strains were isolated from 115 desiccated food products. Fifteen Cronobacter isolates were C. sakazakii (13%), followed by 2 C. dublinensis (1.7%), and 1 C. universalis (0.9%). The most common antibiotic resistance of Cronobacter observed was against cephalothin (77.8%) followed by ampicillin (5.6%). With exception of 2 strains, all Cronobacter strains isolated from different sources were successfully differentiated by using the automated rep-PCR system, indicating that it can be used for the purpose of contamination or outbreak source tracking of the bacteria.

Complete genome sequence and phenotype microarray analysis of Cronobacter sakazakii SP291: a persistent isolate cultured from a powdered infant formula production facility

“…Subsequently, a tetracycline-resistant C. sakazakii cultured from a Chilean freshwater salmon farm (Miranda et al, 2003) was isolated, followed by a report of a trimethoprim and neomycin resistance isolate cultured from fresh domiati cheese (El-Sharoud et al, 2009). More recently, isolates resistant to cephalothin were recovered from dried food (Chon et al, 2012). The emergence of strains that have become resistant to antimicrobial compounds is of great concern to public health (Dumen, 2010; Yan et al, 2012).…”

Conditioned medium from Bifidobacteria infantis protects against Cronobacter sakazakii-induced intestinal inflammation in newborn mice

“…sakazakii, also referred to as Enterobacter sakazakii, was first reported as a neonatal pathogen by Urmenyi and Franklin (38). C. sakazakii is a gram-negative, rod-shaped, non-sporeforming bacterium (17) that is frequently a contaminant in powdered infant formulas, table foods, and kitchen counters (4,9,19). C. sakazakii has also been reported to cause meningitis and sepsis and is associated with NEC in preterm infants (11,37,39).…”

Cronobacter sakazakii: stress survival and virulence potential in an opportunistic foodborne pathogen

“…26 Furthermore, recent studies have described a strain carrying an unusual ampC gene, conferring resistance to cephalosporine 27 and found environmental isolates of C. sakazakii from domestic kitchens exhibiting resistance to penicillin, tetracycline, ciprofloxacin and nalidixic acid. 28 A comprehensive analysis by next generation whole genome sequencing and annotation of the C. sakazakii strain SP291 indicates that C. sakazakii possesses a substantial number of genes associated with antibiotic resistance, including ampC (cephalosporine), fosA (fosfomycine), gyrA, gyrB, parC and parB conferring resistance to fluoroquinolones and encoding a multitude of multi-drug resistance mechanisms, mainly drug efflux pumps.…”