Prevalence of Species Isolated from Retail Meats in Korea

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of Arcobacter species identified or isolated from retail meats in Korea. Multiplex PCR assays for the detection of Arcobacter species were performed for 360 chicken, 100 pork, and 106 beef samples. Arcobacter butzleri and Arcobacter cryaerophilus were detected in 18.9 and 3.3% of chicken samples, respectively. However, Arcobacter species were not found in any of the pork and beef samples. Biochemical testing of isolates selected after enrichment revealed 38 A. butzleri isolates in chicken samples, but no A. cryaerophilus isolates were detected. In this study, A. butzleri was the most prevalent Arcobacter species in chicken meat, and contamination with Arcobacter species in pork and beef may be less prevalent in Korea.

Comparison of Conventional PCR, Multiplex PCR, and Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification Assays for Rapid Detection of Arcobacter Species

“…Although the Arcobacter contamination rates obtained in this study were consistent with those in previous reports (23,42), studies in the United States and Japan showed much lower rates than those reported herein (43,44). In contrast to molecular detection, bacterial culture for Arcobacter spp.…”

“…Bacterial culture is not practical for the rapid detection of Arcobacter species because of their slow growth in Campylobacter blood-free selective medium; therefore, conventional PCR, multiplex PCR, and enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus (ERIC)-PCR were used in previous studies for the rapid detection of Arcobacter spp. (23,35,36). In this study, five C. jejuni strains and one C. coli strain were detected as false positives by multiplex PCR described previously (26).…”

“…Because of a lack of a simple identification system for Arcobacter spp., multiplex PCR was widely used for the detection of Arcobacter spp. in previous studies (19,23,25,26). However, the cross-reactivity of multiplex PCR with Campylobacter spp.…”

“…As multiplex PCR for Arcobacter species was widely used in previous studies (23,26,32,33), the primers ARCO (5=-CCT GGA CTT GAC ATA GTA AGA ATG A-3=), BUTZ (5=-CGT ATT CAC CGT AGC ATA GC-3=), SKIR (5=-GGC GAT TTA CTG GAA CAC A-3=), CRY1 (5=-TGC TGG AGC GGA TAG AAG TA-3=), and CRY2 (5=-AAC AAC CTA CGT CCT TCG AC-3=) were used to detect Arcobacter species in this study. The multiplex PCR mixture contained 1 mM concentrations of deoxynucleoside triphosphate s (dNTPs) (Bioneer), 2 l of 10ϫ reaction buffer (Tris [pH 9.0], 15 mM MgCl 2 ) (Bioneer), a 1.25 M concentration of each primer, 0.05 U/l Top polymerase (Bioneer), and 2 l of DNA template, with deionized water added to bring the total reaction volume to 20 l. Multiplex PCR was performed on an MJ mini personal thermal cycler (Bio-Rad, Mexico) with the following conditions: initial denaturation at 94°C for 5 min, followed by 35 cycles of denaturation at 94°C for 45 s, annealing at 61°C for 45 s, extension at 72°C for 45 s, and final extension at 72°C for 10 min.…”

“…Selective culture methods for isolating Arcobacter species have been developed and compared in previous studies (20)(21)(22)(23). PCR, multiplex PCR, real-time PCR, and multiplex real-time PCR for detecting Arcobacter species were developed, targeting the 16S or 23S rRNA, rpoB-rpoC, and gyrA genes (24)(25)(26).…”