Survival and Inactivation ofArcobacterspp., a Current Status and Future Prospect

Abstract

Arcobacter spp. has been isolated from food of animal origin (particularly meats) and from various kind of water. Despite its phylogenetically related neighbor Campylobacter, Arcobacter is regarded as an emerging foodborne pathogen. Since Arcobacter differs in its phenotypic characteristics, the physical and chemical treatments designed for elimination of campylobacters from food and environment needs to be verified. This review focuses on the occurrence, and mainly on susceptibility to various physical and chemical treatments for inactivation of Arcobacter spp. The existing studies have been critically discussed and new challenges were proposed for further studies.

Arcobacter butzleri in Sheep Ricotta Cheese at Retail and Related Sources of Contamination in an Industrial Dairy Plant

“…In addition, the isolation method used in this work may have affected the species of Arcobacter detected, as most of the isolation methods used are not optimal for all Arcobacter species (28). The reported isolation of A. butzleri in industrial ricotta cheeses has significant food safety implications for the following reasons: (i) ricotta cheese is a ready-to-eat product, and Arcobacter-contaminated ricotta cheese could be considered a potential source of Arcobacter infection for consumers; (ii) ricotta cheese provides a substrate (pH Ͼ 6.0, water activity [a w ] of 0.98 to 0.99, and moisture content of 75 to 80%) that is not limiting for the survival of A. butzleri (32,33), as it is able to grow at a w values of 0.985 to 0.990 (34) and in the pH range of 6.0 to 8.0 (2); (iii) A. butzleri has been demonstrated to survive at refrigeration temperature in different substrates (8,35), including dairy products (26,27).…”

“…The ability of A. butzleri to tolerate chlorine concentrations close to working solutions used for sanitizing in food processing plants was recently reported (36). Further, the ability of this species to form biofilms (34) or to incorporate in a preestablished biofilm as a secondary colonizer (9), together with its ability to proliferate at chiller temperatures (34), suggests that A. butzleri can colonize and multiply in parts of the processing surfaces.…”

Taxonomy, Epidemiology, and Clinical Relevance of the Genus Arcobacter

“…All these outbreaks were related to the presence of fecal contamination, but the capacity of Arcobacter to adhere to different types of pipes and to form biofilms (8) should be considered. Although the susceptibility of A. butzleri to chlorine has been demonstrated (20,112,129), it was not known if conventional procedures for drinking water treatment could effectively remove this bacterium, as described by Ho et al (64). In a recent study it was found that although the species A. butzleri and A. cryaerophilus were very prevalent in the Llobregat River water (one of the main sources of drinking water production for the metropolitan area of Barcelona, Spain), these species were never detected or isolated from finished drinking water, clearly demonstrating that water treatment is effective in removing Arcobacter species (27).…”

“…The loss of culturability of this species in nonchlorinated water stored at 12°C occurs after 21 days (112), while according to other authors, it occurs after 3 to 4 weeks on agar plates at 4°C (20). Moreover, it has been reported that A. butzleri has the ability to become viable but nonculturable (VBNC) when subjected to different laboratory conditions (20,45), but this VBNC state has not yet been shown to occur in Arcobacter in natural aquatic environments.…”

“…Less commonly isolated species are A. nitrofigilis (25,107) and A. mytili and A. thereius (25). As indicated above, Cervenka (20) and D'Sa and Harrison (38) have reviewed several treatments and conditions that may help to eliminate or control the presence of arcobacters from food products, as Houf (69) (61), who reported the presence of Arcobacter spp. in 6 of the 10 intestinal samples from raccoons (Procyon lotor) studied.…”