Prevalence and Genetic Diversity of Arcobacter in Food Products in the North of Spain

Abstract

The bacterial contamination of food products can cause serious public health problems. Interest in Arcobacter contamination has increased due to the relationship between these bacteria and human enteritis. We studied the prevalence and genetic diversity of Arcobacter species at the retail level in the province of Alava in Basque Country, Spain. The results showed a high genetic diversity and indicated the regular presence of the main Arcobacter spp. associated with human enteric illness in food products. Arcobacter butzleri, Arcobacter cryaerophilus, and Arcobacter skirrowii were detected with an overall prevalence close to 40% and were isolated from 15 (42.8%) fresh cow's milk samples, 12 (73.3%) shellfish samples, 11 (55%) chicken samples, 2 (10%) pork samples, and 1 (5%) beef sample. The results indicate the need to investigate the impact of Arcobacter spp. on public health.

Genetic diversity ofArcobacterisolated from bivalves of Adriatic and their interactions withMytilus galloprovincialishemocytes

“…These results suggest that the marine environment, thus, the marine organisms used as a food, particularly bivalves, may represent a potential reservoir of Arcobacter for infection (Collado & Figueras, ). In agreement with previous studies carried out in different geographical areas, this study confirms that potentially pathogenic arcobacters are frequently found in bivalve samples and A. butzleri is the most prevalent species (Collado et al., , ; Levican et al., ; Mottola et al., ; Nieva‐Echevarria et al., ). Previous studies in Spanish marine areas reported A. butzleri and A. cryaerophilus as the most prevalent species isolated from mussels and clams, respectively (Collado et al., ), while, with respect to the seasonality, A. butzleri predominated from June to October and A. cryaerophilus from January to May (Levican et al., ).…”

Occurrence, genetic diversity and antibiotic resistance of Arcobacter sp. in a dairy plant

“…Notwithstanding the previously described carriage of Arcobacter by healthy sheep and goats, which have been seen as posing a risk of faecal contamination of milk in farms (De Smet et al 2011), several works have reported the absence of Arcobacter sp. isolation in goat and sheep milk (De Smet et al 2011;Shah et al 2012a), in contrast to studies showing the presence of Arcobacter in raw milk at highly variable rates (5Á7-50Á0%) (Scullion et al 2006;Ertas et al 2010;Shah et al 2012b;Nieva-Echevarria et al 2013;Revez et al 2013). Our results show that Arcobacter can be found not only in raw milk but also in intermediate products along the cheese production process, namely curd, whey and even in cheese during ripening, showing that this bacterium progresses along the food chain; however, it is likely that the ripening process reduces or even eliminates the contamination.…”

Development of a comparative genomic fingerprinting assay for rapid and high resolution genotyping of Arcobacter butzleri

“…a model agro-ecosystem) as this region possesses high rates of enteritis [ 27 ], which has been attributed to dense livestock populations in the region [ 28 , 29 ]. Arcobacter butzleri is closely related to C. jejuni and it is considered by some to be an emerging pathogen [ 3 , 7 , 30 ] because it has been isolated from diarrheic people [ 11 , 31 ]. However, its pathogenicity and reservoirs/pathways of transmission for potentially pathogenic genotypes have yet to be elucidated.…”