PREVALENCE AND ANTIMICROBIAL RESISTANCE OF LISTERIA SPECIES IN FOOD PRODUCTS IN BANGKOK, THAILAND

Abstract

A total of 380 meat and meat products, dairy and dairy products, fresh vegetables, fresh seafood, and ready‐to‐eat food samples from supermarkets in Bangkok, Thailand were collected and analyzed for the occurrence of Listeria spp. and of Listeria monocytogenes. The overall incidence of Listeria spp. was 16.8%, most of them were isolated from raw meat and vegetables. L. monocytogenes was isolated from 18 (4.7%) out of 380 studied samples. Other species isolated were L. innocua (6.6%), L. ivanovii (0.8%), L. seeligeri (0.5%), L. grayi (1.6%) and L. welshimeri (2.6%). The antimicrobial susceptibilities of the 64 isolate of Listeria spp. were also examined by the standard disk diffusion method. Listeria spp. were resistant to penicillin (6.3%), chloramphenicol (3.1%) and tetracycline (1.6%), but sensitive to amoxicillin, vancomycin, ampicillin, rifampicin and sulfamethoxazole. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS Listeria monocytogenes prevalence in food products in Bangkok has been documented. More studies on the occurrence of L. monocytogenes are needed to establish microbiological criteria of foods in the country. The findings of our study, increases in antibiotic resistance among Listeria spp. will provide useful information for the development of public health policy in the use of antimicrobials in food animal production.

Prevalence of Listeria spp. and antibiotic susceptibility of Listeria monocytogenes isolated from raw chicken and ready-to-eat chicken products in Jordan

“…Al-Tahiri et al (2008) found that the average prevalence rate of L. monocytogenes in traditional cheese in Karak district in Jordan was 2%. The occurrence of L. monocytogenes in RTE foods in different parts of the globe was also reported in lower rates that those reported in this study (Garrido, Vitas, & García-Jalón, 2009;Jalali & Abedi, 2008;Little, Sagoo, Gillespie, Grant, & McLauchlin, 2009;Mena et al, 2004;Stonsaovapak & Boonyaratanakornkit, 2010;Vitas et al, 2004).…”

“…Both L. seeligeri and L. grayi were identified in raw poultry at low percentage of 2.5 and 5% of the total identified species. This comes in parallel to other studies on raw sheep milk, raw poultry or poultry liver (Al-Tahiri et al, 2008;Pesavento et al, 2010;Stonsaovapak & Boonyaratanakornkit, 2010).…”

Prevalence and antibiotic resistance of Listeria species in food products in Taipei, Taiwan

“…in comparison with other countries including New Zealand (Hudson et al, 1992), Belgium (Uyttendaele et al, 1999), Korea (Baek et al, 2000), and Spain (De Simon et al, 1992). On the other hand, our finding is in agreement with that for Thailand (Stonsaovapak and Boonyaratanakornkit, 2010). Table 2 lists the Listeria spp.…”

Prevalence of Listeria species in Fresh Salad Vegetables and Ready-to-Eat Foods Containing Fresh Produce Marketed in Canterbury, New Zealand

“…presence. 11 Althaus et al found that the samples of RTE lettuce were infected by L. monocytogenes. 12 In another report, Uzeh and Adepoju showed that L. monocytogenes was present on salad vegetables (sliced cabbage, lettuce and carrot).…”