Bacteriocin Production of Enterococcus Species Isolated From Milk and Some Cheese Samples

Abstract

Enterococci can be used as a starter or probiotic culture in the food industry. However, enterococci are also implicated in severe multi-resistant nosocomial infections. In this study, some probiotic characteristics such as antimicrobial activity and antibiotic susceptibility were investigated.Twenty-three strains of Enterococcus species isolated from Raw milk (7 strains), Karish cheese (8 strains), Domiati cheese (5 strains), and Ras cheese (3 strains) were studied for the capability to produce bacteriocin and antibiotic susceptibility.The seven studied antibiotics showed a different powerful effect on Enterococcus strains. The most effective antibiotic against 23 Enterococcus strains were amikacin, cefotaxime, and cefoxitin, which inhibited the growth of all tested strains, followed by levofloxacin azlocillin, and cloxacillin which inhibited 21, 19, and 19 strains, respectively, out of 23 studied strains. In addition, colistin showed the lowest powerful effect against all Enterococcus strains studied was resistant to this antibiotic. Antimicrobial activity was confirmed for all 23 strains against B. thuringiensis