Prevalence and subtyping of Cronobacter species in goat milk powder factories in Shaanxi province, China

Abstract

Cronobacter spp. are opportunistic pathogens that can cause serious diseases in neonates and infants via consumption of contaminated milk powder. To determine Cronobacter spp. contamination status, 632 samples, including 15 evaporated milk, 45 intermediate powder, 150 finished products, and 422 manufacturing environment samples, were collected from 3 goat milk powder factories in Shaanxi province, China, from July 2013 to April 2014. The recovered Cronobacter isolates were subtyped using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis to trace the potential dissemination routes during the whole production processing. Sixty-seven Cronobacter spp. isolates were recovered. The prevalence rates in manufacturing environment, intermediate powder, and finished products were 92.5, 6.0, and 1.5%, respectively. The predominant species were Cronobacter sakazakii (88.1%); no Cronobacter turicensis, Cronobacter condimenti, or Cronobacter dublinensis were detected. Sixty-seven Cronobacter isolates were grouped in 26 clusters by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, and substantial genetic similarity was observed among isolates from different sampling sites in the same factory. Isolates in the main clusters were commonly recovered from intermediate powder, floor powder, and shoes. These data indicated that air, powder, and personnel movement were potential routes for Cronobacter dissemination, and manufacturing environment is the key control point for Cronobacter contamination.

Prevalence of Cronobacter spp. and Salmonella in Milk Powder Manufacturing Facilities in the United States

“…(Note: In the literature on this topic, the term "sample" is used to denote a location within a manufacturing facility where a single sponge or swab is taken and tested; it is equivalent to the FDA term "subsample.") The prevalence observed in the current study is more in line with the findings of Fang et al (16), who reported that 10.6% of the samples collected from goat milk powder facilities were positive for Cronobacter. Other studies have focused on sampling in one facility, in some instances with multiple visits over an extended period (e.g., months).…”

“…In the present study, Cronobacter was isolated from the environment of 38 (69%) of 55 milk powder production facilities. In previous studies, Cronobacter was detected in the manufacturing environment of all milk powder facilities that were tested, e.g., five of five facilities in Australia (9); three of three facilities in China (16), four of four facilities in Europe (29).…”

“…In the current study, the data collection format was not conducive to making conclusions about the specific sites where Cronobacter was isolated. Other studies that were designed to explore this question have reported areas that frequently tested positive for Cronobacter: spray drying rooms (9, 16), entrances to spray drying rooms (9), and packaging rooms (16), as well as air filters (33), floors, and vacuums (23).…”

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“…Cronobacter spp. were isolated from the manufacturing environment, intermediate powder, and finished products and from those isolates Cronobacter sakazakii was the most prevalent when compared to others [44]. This was also in agreement with a study conducted by Hochel, et al and Lee, et al that indicated Cronobacter sakazakii was the most prevalent species recovered from food sam-tural changes that are tolerant of hostile conditions such as antibiotics, sanitizing agents, and host immune systems [20].…”

“…As reported by numbers of scholars this bacterium has been isolated from different samples such as clinical specimens, environmental, foodstuffs and food processing environments [46,47]. Cronobacter sakazakii has been isolated from a wide range of environmental sources and several foods of animal and plant origins such as cereal, fruit and vegetables, legume products, herbs, spices, milk, meat, fish, infant milk formula, milk powder, herbal teas, cheese products, and even isolated from environmental samples such as in dust [8,13,28,44,[48][49][50]. Cronobacter sakazakii was also identified from the mouths of stroke patients [51].…”