Isolation and Molecular Identification of Some Food Borne Pathogens from Raw and Processed Meats: In vitro Synergistic Probability of Lactobacillus CFS and Antibiotic

Abstract

MICROBIAL food safety is an important health concern; isolation of food-borne pathogens from available meat products is a bad indicator of poor hygienic practices. A Total of 200 samples of meats comprise beef burger, sausage, raw chicken and raw red meat (50 of each) were examined for hygienic quality by detecting the presence of potential bacterial food-borne pathogens. The highest frequency was recorded for E. coli (48.25%) and Salmonella sp. (26.25%) for the different meat samples, at the same time chicken meat was the most contaminated type. Isolates were identified by conventional bacteriological methods and confirmed by polymerase chain reaction using specific 16S rRNA primer pairs. B. cereus was identified by targeting the presence of enterotoxin nhe A and B genes. Checking for the presence of shiga-toxin gene in E. coli O517 showed positive result. All confirmed isolates were tested for multidrug resistance characterization and found to be highly resistant to almost of the studied antibiotics. The most resistant strain was B. cereus (75%) and the less efficient antibiotics were ampicillin and Sulfamethaxole/trimethoprim. Lactobacillus acidophilus cell free supernatant (CFS) showed efficient activity to inhibit the growth of all resistant isolates. Synergistic activity was detected when both agents (ampicillin & CFR) were used in combination against S. aureus and P. aeruginosa.