Zeitschrift für Lebensmittel- und Industriemikrobiologie

Identification and Virulence of Enterobacter sakazakii

Abstract

Rajani CSR, Chaudhary A, Swarna A and Puniya AK

Enterobacter sakazakii (formerly known as Cronobacter sakazakii) is an opportunistic pathogen that causes necrotizing enterocolitis, bacteremia and meningitis, especially in neonates. This study was an attempt to isolate E. sakazakii from different food and environmental sources so as to establish its presence and possible source of transmission. For this, 93 samples (i.e., 37 from dairy and 56 from non-dairy) were collected using standard procedures of sampling. Out of these samples, 45 isolates (i.e., 14 from dairy and 31 from other samples) were taken further on the basis of growth on tryptic soy agar. On further screening on the basis of Gram staining, catalase and oxidase test, only 27 isolates were observed to be positive. The positive isolates were also subjected to PCR based identification using species specific primers. Overall, 11 isolates confirmed as E. sakazakii were also tested for virulent characteristics (i.e., hemolytic activity, haemagglutination test and DNase production) and all the isolates were found to be positive showing a potential threat of infection through food commodities.