Identification of Listeria monocytogenes Contamination in a Ready-to-Eat Meat Processing Plant in China

作者：Hongzhi Zhang, Fengxia Que, Biyao Xu, Linjun Sun, Yanqi Zhu, Wen‐Jie Chen, Yulong Ye, Qingli Dong, Hong Liu, Xi Zhang · 发表于：Frontiers in Microbiology · 年份：2021 · DOI：10.3389/fmicb.2021.628204 · 被引用次数：24 · 研究领域：Listeria monocytogenes in Food Safety、Essential Oils and Antimicrobial Activity、Food Safety and Hygiene

Listeria monocytogenes is the etiologic agent of listeriosis, which remains a significant public health concern in many countries due to its high case-fatality rate. The constant risk of L. monocytogenes transmission to consumers remains a central challenge in the food production industry. At present, there is very little known about L. monocytogenes contamination in ready-to-eat (RTE) processing plants in China. In this study, L. monocytogenes in an RTE meat processing plant in Shanghai municipality was characterized using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and whole genome sequencing (WGS). Furthermore, the biofilm formation ability of the pathogen was also tested. Results revealed that L. monocytogenes isolates were present in 12 samples out of the 48 samples investigated. Most of them (66.7%, 8/12) were identified from the processing facilities irrespective of observed hygiene levels of aerobic plate count (APC) and coliforms. Coliforms were present in only one processing area. ST5 (1/2b) isolates were predominant (83.3%, 10/12) and were identified in two dominant pulsotypes (PTs) (three in PT3 and seven in PT4, respectively). Results of the core-genome multi-locus sequence typing (cgMLST) showed that ST5 in three PTs (PT1, PT3, and PT4) had 0–8 alleles, which confirmed that clonal transmission occurred in the RTE meat processing facilities. In addition, the biofilm formation test confirmed that the isolates from the processing facilities could form biofilms, which h...