Streptococcus parauberis associated with modified atmosphere packaged broiler meat products and air samples from a poultry meat processing plant

Abstract

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) isolated from marinated or non-marinated, modified atmosphere packaged (MAP) broiler leg products and air samples of a large-scale broiler meat processing plant were identified and analyzed for their phenotypic properties.Previously, these strains had been found to be coccal LAB. However, the use of a 16 and 23S rRNA gene RFLP database had not resulted in species identification because none of the typically meat-associated LAB type strains had clustered together with these strains in the numerical analysis of the RFLP patterns. To establish the taxonomic position of these isolates, 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, numerical analysis of ribopatterns, and DNA-DNA hybridization experiments were done. The 16S rRNA gene sequences of three isolates possessed the highest similarities (over 99%) with the sequence of S. parauberis type strain. However, in the numerical analysis of HindIII ribopatterns, the type strain did not cluster together with these isolates. Reassociation values between S. parauberis type or reference strain and the strains studied varied from 82 to 97%, confirming that these strains belong to S. parauberis. Unexpectedly, most of the broiler meat-originating strains studied for their phenotypical properties did not utilize lactose at all and the same strains fermented also galactose very weakly, properties considered atypical for S. parauberis. This is, to our knowledge, the first report of lactose negative S. parauberis strains and also the first report associating S. parauberis with broiler slaughter and meat products.

Identification and Antimicrobial Resistance of Streptococcus uberis and Streptococcus parauberis Isolated from Bovine Milk Samples

“…To confirm the conventional identification of all these 137 isolates and to differentiate between S. uberis and S. parauberis, the 16S and 23S HindIII RFLP patterns (HindIII ribopatterns) of the isolates were analyzed. HindIII restriction enzyme was chosen because it has been found to provide species-specific patterns for various bacteria (Björkroth and Korkeala, 1996;Koort et al, 2005Koort et al, , 2006. Numerical analysis of the patterns, functioning as operational taxonomic units, results in cluster formation.…”

“…The only phenotypic criterion allowing differentiation is the production of β-D-glucuronidase by S. uberis (Khan et al, 2003). During the last few decades, DNA-based methods such as species-specific oligonucleotide probes (Bentley et al, 1993;Harland et al, 1993), PCR-based methods with species-specific primers (Hassan et al, 2001;Alber et al, 2004) or RFLP (Jayarao et al, 1991, McDonald et al, 2005, and 16S and 23S rRNA gene RFLP patterns (ribotypes; Williams and Collins, 1991;Koort et al, 2006) have been used to differentiate between S. uberis and S. parauberis. In addition to the differentiation between S. uberis and S. parauberis, numerical analysis of RFLP patterns, used as operational taxonomic units, has been found reliable for the species level identification in several genera of gram-positive, catalasenegative cocci, when used with validated ribopattern database (Rinkinen et al, 2004;Björkroth et al, 2005;Švec et al, 2005).…”

Proteomics in Food Science

“…Streptococcus parauberis is an agent of mastitis in cows and thus is a source of economic loss for the dairy industry. Barreiro et al (2010) reported the identification of subclinical cow mastitis pathogens in milk using MALDI-TOF MS. S. parauberis has also been associated with spoilage in meat products (Koort et al, 2006) and has been reported to produce infectious disease in farmed fish, such as turbot (Domenech et al, 1996). Recently, the isolation and MALDI-TOF MS identification of S. parauberis in vacuum-packed seafood products have been reported (Fernández-No et al, 2012).…”