Food Research Institute

KROČKO, M. - ČANIGOVÁ, M. - DUCKOVÁ, V.
Occurrence, isolation and antibiotic resistance of Enterococcus species isolated from raw pork, beef and poultry
Journal of Food and Nutrition Research, 46, 2007, No. 2, s. 91-95

Miroslav Kročko, Slovak University of Agriculture, Tr. A. Hlinku 2, SK - 949 76 Nitra, Slovakia. E-mail: mirokrocko@yahoo.com

Summary: The aim of this work was to investigate the prevalence of enterococci and antimicrobial resistance of Enterococcus spp. in 110 samples of raw pork (64%), raw beef (23%) and poultry (13%). The samples for enumeration of total bac­terial counts were cultured on diagnostic Plate count agar and the samples for enumeration of enterococci count were cultured on selective diagnostic Slanetz–Bartley agar. The counts of enterococci were in the range of 0.60–6.47 log CFU.cm^-2 in pork, 0–2.14 log CFU.cm^-2 in beef and 1.45‑4.00 log CFU.cm^-2 in poultry. Susceptibilities of isolated enterococci from pork and poultry to antimicrobial agents were tested using the disk diffusion method. Enterococcus faecium was the dominant species recovered from pork (72%) and poultry (39%), followed by E. faecalis 10% (pork) and 23% (poultry). Of 75 isolates of enterococci, 15% were resistant to vancomycin and 15% were resistant to erythromycin, 27% to ampicillin, 25% to gentamicin and 56% to tetracycline. We found a higher prevalence of intermediate resistant isolates of pork and poultry to ampicillin (70 and 40%), gentamicin (66 and 40%), tetracycline (only pork 54%) and erythromycin (only pork 64%). Our study suggests that raw meat plays a potential role as a reservoir of enterococci resistant to antibiotics.

Keywords: Enterococcus; raw meat; antibiotic resistance; vancomycin resistant enterococci

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