Importance of Listeria monocytogenes as Food-borne Infection Transmissible to Man Through Food

Abstract

L. monocytogenes is considered one of the important human food-borne pathogens which is transmitted through the consumption of different food categories including meat products, milk and dairy products. L. monocytogenes may cause severe illness with high fatality rate and it was linked to large outbreaks worldwide.

So, the present study was conducted to evaluate the occurrence of L. monocytogenes in different samples included meat products, raw milk, kariesh cheese in addition to swabs were taken from food refrigerators and human stool specimens.

All samples were cultured for the isolation of L. monocytogenes and other Listeria species using the conventional International Organization for standardization (ISO, 11290-1) method. All the isolates were identified biochemically using Listeria Microbact 12L, L. monocytogenes isolates were confirmed by PCR.

The results of this study revealed that the overall percent of L. monocytogenes isolates in meat products was 4%; beef burger (8%), in addition to L. ivanovii (2%) and L. seeligeri (2%) were also recorded. For both minced meat and Luncheon samples L. monocytogenes was recovered for each (4%). None of sausage samples yielded L. monocytogenes, but both L. ivanovii and L. seeligeri were isolated in a ratio 2% for each.