Nobili Gaia, Franconieri Ilenia, La Bella Gianfranco, Basanisi Maria Grazia, La Salandra Giovanna
Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Puglia e della Basilicata, Foggia, Italy.
Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Puglia e della Basilicata, Foggia, Italy.
Int J Food Microbiol. 2017 Sep 18;257:201-205. doi: 10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2017.06.022. Epub 2017 Jun 28.
Verocytotoxin (VT)-producing Escherichia coli (VTEC) are a significant foodborne public health hazard, where most human infections are associated with six serogroups (O157, O26, O103, O145, O111 and O104). VTEC was the fourth most commonly reported zoonosis in the EU in 2015, with 5901 confirmed human cases. Ruminant animals, including cattle, are a major reservoir of VTEC. The consumption of VTEC-contaminated animal-derived foodstuffs, especially undercooked ground beef, is an important transmission route. To the best of our knowledge, there are few data available on the contamination of VTEC in meat products in Italy. During 2015 and 2016, 250 raw meat samples were collected from retail markets in southern Italy (Apulia) and analysed for the occurrence of vtx genes (vtx1/vtx2) at the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Puglia e della Basilicata (IZS PB, Italy). In addition, the isolates were characterized by determining the presence of VTEC main virulence factors, the antimicrobial resistance profiles and the genetic relatedness by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). The results have shown that 8.4% (21/250) of the samples were positive for vtx genes in the preliminary screening step but VTEC strains were isolated from only 2% (5/250) of overall meat analysed samples, including raw ground beef, beef hamburger and beef carpaccio. 5 isolates displayed a multi-drug resistance phenotype. All VTEC strains were analysed by XbaI-PFGE and dendrogram revealed 5 distinct restriction profiles, indicating their relatively high genetic diversity. Although this study demonstrates a low prevalence of VTEC in raw beef marketed in southern Italy, the presence of potentially pathogenic E. coli strains points to the need for proper hygiene during meat production to reduce the risk of foodborne illness and transmission of multi-drug resistant organisms via foods to humans.
产志贺毒素（VT）的大肠杆菌（VTEC）是一种重大的食源性公共卫生危害，大多数人类感染与六个血清群（O157、O26、O103、O145、O111和O104）有关。2015年，VTEC是欧盟报告的第四大人畜共患病，有5901例确诊人类病例。反刍动物，包括牛，是VTEC的主要宿主。食用受VTEC污染的动物源性食品，尤其是未煮熟的碎牛肉，是一条重要的传播途径。据我们所知，关于意大利肉类产品中VTEC污染的数据很少。在2015年和2016年期间，从意大利南部（普利亚）的零售市场收集了250份生肉样本，并在普利亚和巴西利卡塔动物卫生实验研究所（意大利IZS PB）分析了vtx基因（vtx1/vtx2）的存在情况。此外，通过确定VTEC主要毒力因子的存在、抗菌药物耐药谱以及通过脉冲场凝胶电泳（PFGE）确定遗传相关性来对分离株进行特征分析。结果表明，在初步筛选步骤中，8.4%（21/250）的样本vtx基因呈阳性，但仅从分析的所有肉类样本的2%（5/250）中分离出VTEC菌株，包括生碎牛肉、牛肉汉堡和牛肉薄片。5株分离株表现出多重耐药表型。所有VTEC菌株均通过XbaI-PFGE进行分析，树形图显示有5种不同的限制性图谱，表明它们具有相对较高的遗传多样性。尽管这项研究表明意大利南部市场上的生牛肉中VTEC的流行率较低，但潜在致病性大肠杆菌菌株的存在表明在肉类生产过程中需要适当的卫生措施，以降低食源性疾病风险以及多药耐药生物通过食物传播给人类的风险。
