The prevalence of and resistance to antimicrobial agents of Bacillus cereus isolates from foodstuffs

Abstract

The study was aimed at the assessment whether foodstuffs contaminated with Bacillus cereus (B. cereus) may concurrently be vectors of spreading resistance. The contamination of foodstuffs with B. cereus strains was found in 31% of dairy and in 28% of meat products tested. Only one product from skimmed milk was contaminated. High-fat milk products that were heat-treated during the technological process (87 samples), as well as heat-treated meat products (65 samples), were contaminated significantly frequently (63% and 48% of the samples respectively) (P < 0.01). Almost all B. cereus isolates displayed low susceptibility to ampicillin, cephalothin, and to oxacillin. Except for streptomycin (STR) resistance, resistance to other 8 antimicrobial agents occurred sporadically. The STR resistant isolates came particularly from spreading buffer (8 samples) (P < 0.05). It was established that the same samples were contaminated with two subpopulations of B. cereus with different STR resistances. The frequent occurrence of B. cereus in foodstuffs with either fat content and/or subject to heat treatment in processing makes these products risky, however, our study did not confirm that foodstuffs contaminated with B. cereus are concurrently vectors of transmissible resistance genes.

Prevalence and Characterization of Bacillus cereus in Meat and Meat Products in and around Jammu Region of Jammu and Kashmir

“…In the present study results revealed the incidence of B. cereus isolates as 29.33 per cent in meat and meat products which are in agreement with similar incidence reported by Schlegelova et al, (2003) and Tewari et al, (2013), who too reported an incidence of 28 per cent and 30.9 per cent respectively in meat samples. However, Bedi et al, (2004) and Kamat et al, (1989) reported an incidence of 63.2 per cent and 80 per cent respectively in chicken and meat products.…”

Bacillus cereus food poisoning: international and Indian perspective

“…B. cereus was recovered from 28 % of the meat products samples including heat-treated products. Of these food samples, heat treated meat products alone showed 48 % positivity for the B. cereus (Schlegelova et al 2003). This is because bacteria are resistant to heat stress.…”

Factors Affecting the Phase Behavior and Antimicrobial Activity of Carvacrol Microemulsions

“…On the other hand B. cereus and L. monocytogens are also Gram-positive bacteria like S. aureus but they are more resistant to carvacrol microemulsion Table 2 . That could be due to the spore forming nature of B. cereus or the presence of specific antimicrobial drug resistant genes in this microorganism 57 and in L. monocytogens 58,59 which are not present in S. aureus. Table 3 showed that formulation of carvacrol in microemulsion using the cationic surfactant CPC had significantly higher antibacterial activity than that formulated with the non-ionic T20.…”