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Characterization and Antibiotic Resistance of Listeria monocytogenes Strains Isolated from Greek Myzithra Soft Whey Cheese and Related Food Processing Surfaces over Two-and-a-Half Years of Safety Monitoring in a Cheese Processing Facility

Listeriosis is a serious infectious disease with one of the highest case fatality rates (ca. 20%) among the diseases manifested from bacterial foodborne pathogens in humans, while dairy products are often implicated as sources of human infection with Listeria monocytogenes. In this study, we charact...

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Autores principales: Andritsos, Nikolaos D., Mataragas, Marios
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10048787/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36981126
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/foods12061200
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author Andritsos, Nikolaos D.
Mataragas, Marios
author_facet Andritsos, Nikolaos D.
Mataragas, Marios
author_sort Andritsos, Nikolaos D.
collection PubMed
description Listeriosis is a serious infectious disease with one of the highest case fatality rates (ca. 20%) among the diseases manifested from bacterial foodborne pathogens in humans, while dairy products are often implicated as sources of human infection with Listeria monocytogenes. In this study, we characterized phenotypically and genetically by whole-genome sequencing (WGS) 54 L. monocytogenes strains isolated from Myzithra, a traditional Greek soft whey cheese (48 isolates), and swabs collected from surfaces of a cheese processing plant (six isolates) in the Epirus region of Greece. All but one strain of L. monocytogenes belonged to the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) serogroups IIa (16.7%) and IIb (81.5%), corresponding to serotypes 1/2a, 3a and 1/2b, 3b, 7, respectively. The latter was identified as a PCR-serogroup IVb strain (1.8%) of serotypes 4b, 4d, 4e. Bioinformatics analysis revealed the presence of five sequence types (STs) and clonal complexes (CCs); ST1, ST3, ST121, ST 155, ST398 and CC1, CC3, CC121, CC155, CC398 were thus detected in 1.9, 83.3, 11.0, 1.9, and 1.9% of the L. monocytogenes isolates, respectively. Antibiograms of the pathogen against a panel of seven selected antibiotics (erythromycin, tetracycline, benzylpenicillin, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, ampicillin, ciprofloxacin, and meropenem) showed that 50 strains (92.6%), the six surface isolates also included, were intermediately resistant to ciprofloxacin and susceptible to the rest of the six antimicrobial agents tested, whereas strong resistance against the use of a single from three implicated antibiotics was recorded to four strains (7.4%) of the pathogen isolated from Myzithra cheese samples. Thence, the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) were determined for erythromycin (MIC = 0.19 μg/mL), ciprofloxacin (MIC ≥ 0.19 μg/mL), and meropenem (MIC = 0.64 μg/mL), and finally, just one strain was deemed resistant to the latter antibiotic. The phylogenetic positions of the L. monocytogenes strains and their genetic variability were determined through WGS, whilst also stress response and virulence gene analysis for the isolates was conducted. Findings of this work should be useful as they could be utilized for epidemiological investigations of L. monocytogenes in the food processing environment, revealing possible contamination scenarios, and acquired antimicrobial resistance along the food production chain.
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spelling pubmed-100487872023-03-29 Characterization and Antibiotic Resistance of Listeria monocytogenes Strains Isolated from Greek Myzithra Soft Whey Cheese and Related Food Processing Surfaces over Two-and-a-Half Years of Safety Monitoring in a Cheese Processing Facility Andritsos, Nikolaos D. Mataragas, Marios Foods Article Listeriosis is a serious infectious disease with one of the highest case fatality rates (ca. 20%) among the diseases manifested from bacterial foodborne pathogens in humans, while dairy products are often implicated as sources of human infection with Listeria monocytogenes. In this study, we characterized phenotypically and genetically by whole-genome sequencing (WGS) 54 L. monocytogenes strains isolated from Myzithra, a traditional Greek soft whey cheese (48 isolates), and swabs collected from surfaces of a cheese processing plant (six isolates) in the Epirus region of Greece. All but one strain of L. monocytogenes belonged to the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) serogroups IIa (16.7%) and IIb (81.5%), corresponding to serotypes 1/2a, 3a and 1/2b, 3b, 7, respectively. The latter was identified as a PCR-serogroup IVb strain (1.8%) of serotypes 4b, 4d, 4e. Bioinformatics analysis revealed the presence of five sequence types (STs) and clonal complexes (CCs); ST1, ST3, ST121, ST 155, ST398 and CC1, CC3, CC121, CC155, CC398 were thus detected in 1.9, 83.3, 11.0, 1.9, and 1.9% of the L. monocytogenes isolates, respectively. Antibiograms of the pathogen against a panel of seven selected antibiotics (erythromycin, tetracycline, benzylpenicillin, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, ampicillin, ciprofloxacin, and meropenem) showed that 50 strains (92.6%), the six surface isolates also included, were intermediately resistant to ciprofloxacin and susceptible to the rest of the six antimicrobial agents tested, whereas strong resistance against the use of a single from three implicated antibiotics was recorded to four strains (7.4%) of the pathogen isolated from Myzithra cheese samples. Thence, the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) were determined for erythromycin (MIC = 0.19 μg/mL), ciprofloxacin (MIC ≥ 0.19 μg/mL), and meropenem (MIC = 0.64 μg/mL), and finally, just one strain was deemed resistant to the latter antibiotic. The phylogenetic positions of the L. monocytogenes strains and their genetic variability were determined through WGS, whilst also stress response and virulence gene analysis for the isolates was conducted. Findings of this work should be useful as they could be utilized for epidemiological investigations of L. monocytogenes in the food processing environment, revealing possible contamination scenarios, and acquired antimicrobial resistance along the food production chain. MDPI 2023-03-12 /pmc/articles/PMC10048787/ /pubmed/36981126 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/foods12061200 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Andritsos, Nikolaos D.
Mataragas, Marios
Characterization and Antibiotic Resistance of Listeria monocytogenes Strains Isolated from Greek Myzithra Soft Whey Cheese and Related Food Processing Surfaces over Two-and-a-Half Years of Safety Monitoring in a Cheese Processing Facility
title Characterization and Antibiotic Resistance of Listeria monocytogenes Strains Isolated from Greek Myzithra Soft Whey Cheese and Related Food Processing Surfaces over Two-and-a-Half Years of Safety Monitoring in a Cheese Processing Facility
title_full Characterization and Antibiotic Resistance of Listeria monocytogenes Strains Isolated from Greek Myzithra Soft Whey Cheese and Related Food Processing Surfaces over Two-and-a-Half Years of Safety Monitoring in a Cheese Processing Facility
title_fullStr Characterization and Antibiotic Resistance of Listeria monocytogenes Strains Isolated from Greek Myzithra Soft Whey Cheese and Related Food Processing Surfaces over Two-and-a-Half Years of Safety Monitoring in a Cheese Processing Facility
title_full_unstemmed Characterization and Antibiotic Resistance of Listeria monocytogenes Strains Isolated from Greek Myzithra Soft Whey Cheese and Related Food Processing Surfaces over Two-and-a-Half Years of Safety Monitoring in a Cheese Processing Facility
title_short Characterization and Antibiotic Resistance of Listeria monocytogenes Strains Isolated from Greek Myzithra Soft Whey Cheese and Related Food Processing Surfaces over Two-and-a-Half Years of Safety Monitoring in a Cheese Processing Facility
title_sort characterization and antibiotic resistance of listeria monocytogenes strains isolated from greek myzithra soft whey cheese and related food processing surfaces over two-and-a-half years of safety monitoring in a cheese processing facility
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10048787/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36981126
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/foods12061200
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