Incidence of enteric pathogens in ugba, a traditional fermented food from African oil bean seeds (Pentaclethra macrophylla)

Abstract

Background: The lack of good production practices and probable post-fermentation contaminations contribute to bacterial pathogen load in ugba, a fermented food made from African oil been seeds (Pentaclethra macrophylla Benth). Some of these bacteria are not easily detected using standard culturing techniques. The study used molecular-based approaches involving PCR, cloning and sequencing as well as culture-based methods to investigate the occurrence of pathogenic bacteria within the microbiome of ugba. Six samples (OK1-OK6) were purchased from different local markets within Lagos and Abia States in Nigeria and used in the study. Results: A total of 14 pathogenic bacteria were identified among the bacteria diversity found in ugba. Two pathogens (11%) were uniquely identified by cultural and biochemical characteristics, 12 pathogens (67%) were uniquely identified by culture-independent (PCR-clone-based) method and 4 pathogens (22%) were found in both methods. Enteric pathogens were common and Bacillus sp. was conspicuously absent. Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus detected by cultural method in this study and elsewhere were not picked up by culture-independent method. This is the first report of the presence of Acinetobacter baumanii, Clostridium sartagofum, Enterococcus casseliflavus, Comamonas testosteronii, and Aeromonas sp. in ugba as identified by PCR-clone-based techniques. Though the genera Salmonella and Proteus have been associated with ugba in previous studies, the species-level identities were determined in this research by the culture-independent method used. Conclusions: This study highlights the importance of using appropriate technologies and correct species identification strategies in studying microbiological quality and food safety issues in fermented foods in a developing country like Nigeria.

Effect of Isolated Cultures Fermentation on the Microbial Loads of Fermented African Oil Bean Seed (<i>Pentachletra macrophylla</i>) Products

“…LAB maintain an increasing pattern across the four fermentation days in traditionally fermented and mixed pure culture fermented samples with the peak value obtained at 96 th h (Fig 1 and 4). This agrees with Okorie et al (2017) who opined that Lactic acid bacteria persist until the end of the fermentation, with numbers increasing throughout the period of fermentation. However, a sigmoidal trend was observed in Figures 2 and 3, when AOBS were fermented with single cultures of Bacillus substilis and Lactobacillus fermentum.…”

“…This includes: Escherichia coli and species of Staphylococcus, Klebsiella, and Proteus. Also, reports exist on the possible presence of various other microorganism in ugba including Enterococcus casseliflavus, E. faecalis, E. faecium, Enterobacter aeroginosa, Klebsilla pneumoniae, Salmonella enterica, Proteus mirabilis, Aeromonas sp., Comamonas testosteronii and Clostridium sartagofum (Okorie et al, 2017). Many of these bacterial organisms, however, are part of the gastrointestinal microbiota of the human population, and hence not suggestively pathogenic in real sense.…”

Report of the Scientific Committee of the Spanish Agency for Food Safety and Nutrition (AESAN) on the prospection of biological hazards of interest in food safety in Spain (2)

“…Likewise, bacteria of the group A. baumannii/calcoaceticus have been found in a total of 39.4 % of milk, yoghurt and cheese samples in Brazil (Rabêlo et al, 2021). A. baumannii have also been isolated in traditional fermented African foods obtained from bean oil (Okorie et al, 2017). The development of fermentation as a characteristic element of many foods is key in relation to the microbiota of these types of products (Abouelnaga et al, 2016).…”

Genotyping of Probiotic Lactobacilli in Nigerian Fermented Condiments for Improved Food Safety

“…Our result is related to some previous reports showing the antimicrobial activities of some Lactobacillus species such as L. plantarum Figure 4: Phylogenetic tree constructed using neighbor-joining algorithm in MEGA X with 1000 bootstrap replicates to compare isolated with related Lactobacillus species from based on 16S rRNA gene sequences. G1-G2 represents the diversity of groups while taxa in red represent Lactobacillus species isolated from Nigerian fermented condiments GCC_19M1 and L. plantarum isolated from fermented milk and vegetable, respectively [28], [55], [56], [57].…”