TY - JOUR
T1 - Prevalence of pathogenic Arcobacter species in South Korea
T2 - Comparison of two protocols for isolating the bacteria from foods and examination of nine putative virulence genes
AU - Kim, Nam Hee
AU - Park, Sun Min
AU - Kim, Hye Won
AU - Cho, Tae Jin
AU - Kim, Soon Han
AU - Choi, Changsun
AU - Rhee, Min Suk
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was supported by a grant ( 17162MFDS034 ) from the Korea Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in 2017–2019, and partially supported by a Korea University grant. The authors also thank the School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology of Korea University for BK 21 PLUS and the Institute of Biomedical Science and Food Safety, CJ-Korea University Food Safety Hall for providing equipment and facilities.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2019/4
Y1 - 2019/4
N2 - Contamination of foodstuffs by potentially enteropathogenic Arcobacter spp. is becoming a concern worldwide. However, few studies have examined virulence-associated genes in isolates of Arcobacter spp. from food. Here, we investigated the prevalence of three pathogenic Arcobacter species, A. butzleri, A. cryaerophilus, and A. skirrowii, in chicken, pork, and leafy green vegetables (n = 323) in South Korea. Samples were examined using two different protocols selected from a literature review: Acrobacter selective broth (ASB) II + Arcobacter selective medium (ASM) II (protocol A), and ASB II + modified charcoal cefoperazone deoxycholate agar supplemented with CAT (protocol B). Overall, Arcobacter spp. were detected in 45.8% of food samples, and the recovery rate of protocol B (37.8%) was significantly higher than that of protocol A (30.7%) (p < 0.05). Refrigerated chicken gizzard samples showed the highest detection rate (100%), followed by refrigerated chicken wing (79.5%), intestine (77.3%), neck skin (63.3%), pork (55.6%), frozen chicken legs (5.0%), and leafy green vegetables (4.4%) (p < 0.05). All isolates from chicken and leafy green vegetables were identified as A. butzleri, whereas A. cryaerophilus and A. skirrowii were mainly detected in pork. Most samples (95.8%) harbored more than one of nine putative virulence factors (cadF, ciaB, cj1349, hecA, hecB, mviN, pldA, irgA, and tlyA), and 91.3% harbored more than two. Isolates harboring all nine putative virulence genes were obtained from 1.9% of samples: five pork and one chicken. This study provides comprehensive and de facto evidence regarding prevalence of an emerging pathogen, Arcobacter spp., in various foods, along with their virulence potential. The results justify further research with respect to their role in food safety.
AB - Contamination of foodstuffs by potentially enteropathogenic Arcobacter spp. is becoming a concern worldwide. However, few studies have examined virulence-associated genes in isolates of Arcobacter spp. from food. Here, we investigated the prevalence of three pathogenic Arcobacter species, A. butzleri, A. cryaerophilus, and A. skirrowii, in chicken, pork, and leafy green vegetables (n = 323) in South Korea. Samples were examined using two different protocols selected from a literature review: Acrobacter selective broth (ASB) II + Arcobacter selective medium (ASM) II (protocol A), and ASB II + modified charcoal cefoperazone deoxycholate agar supplemented with CAT (protocol B). Overall, Arcobacter spp. were detected in 45.8% of food samples, and the recovery rate of protocol B (37.8%) was significantly higher than that of protocol A (30.7%) (p < 0.05). Refrigerated chicken gizzard samples showed the highest detection rate (100%), followed by refrigerated chicken wing (79.5%), intestine (77.3%), neck skin (63.3%), pork (55.6%), frozen chicken legs (5.0%), and leafy green vegetables (4.4%) (p < 0.05). All isolates from chicken and leafy green vegetables were identified as A. butzleri, whereas A. cryaerophilus and A. skirrowii were mainly detected in pork. Most samples (95.8%) harbored more than one of nine putative virulence factors (cadF, ciaB, cj1349, hecA, hecB, mviN, pldA, irgA, and tlyA), and 91.3% harbored more than two. Isolates harboring all nine putative virulence genes were obtained from 1.9% of samples: five pork and one chicken. This study provides comprehensive and de facto evidence regarding prevalence of an emerging pathogen, Arcobacter spp., in various foods, along with their virulence potential. The results justify further research with respect to their role in food safety.
KW - Arcobacter
KW - Leafy green
KW - Pork
KW - Poultry
KW - Virulence gene
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85056000738&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.fm.2018.09.008
DO - 10.1016/j.fm.2018.09.008
M3 - Article
C2 - 30497601
AN - SCOPUS:85056000738
VL - 78
SP - 18
EP - 24
JO - Food Microbiology
JF - Food Microbiology
SN - 0740-0020
ER -