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Antimicrobial Resistance of Coagulase-Negative Staphylococci Isolated from Spontaneously Fermented Sausages

Nevijo Zdolec1, Ivana Račić2, Anja Vujnović2, Maja Zdelar-Tuk2, Krešimir Matanović3, Ivana Filipović1, Vesna Dobranić1, Željko Cvetnić2 and Silvio Špičić2


1University of Zagreb, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Food Hygiene, Technology and Safety, Heinzelova 55, HR-10000 Zagreb, Croatia

2Croatian Veterinary Institute, Department for Bacteriology and Parasitology, Laboratory for Bacterial Zoonoses and Molecular Diagnostics of Bacterial Diseases, Savska cesta 143, HR-10000 Zagreb, Croatia
3University of Zagreb, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases with Clinic, Heinzelova 55, HR-10000 Zagreb, Croatia

Article history:

Received March 26, 2012
Accepted July 20, 2012

Key words:

fermented sausages, Staphylococcus epidermidis, resistance genes

Summary:
                                                                                                                                                                                 

The antimicrobial susceptibility of coagulase-negative staphylococci isolated from spontaneously fermented sausages was assessed using both traditional and molecular methods. Isolates were tested for sensitivity to vancomycin, ampicillin, erythromycin, tetracycline, gentamycin and oxacillin by the disk diffusion method and quantitative-qualitative epsilometer test. PCR was used for the detection of resistance genes mecA, ermB, tetK and tetM. The identified coagulase-negative staphylococci were Staphylococcus epidermidis (69 %), S. capitis (5 %) and S. warneri (2.5 %). S. epidermidis showed a high rate of phenotypical resistance to tetracycline and erythromycin (44.4 % of strains). Molecular evaluation of resistance determinants revealed tetK or tetM genes in eight S. epidermidis strains. Although S. epidermidis is not classical food poisoning bacteria, its presence in food could be of public health significance due to the possible spread of antimicrobial resistance determinants. Our findings implicate that spontaneous meat fermentation could result in products with a potential hazard to consumers.


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