Abstract
The Bacillus cereus group has been isolated from soils, water, plants and numerous food products. These species can produce a variety of toxins including several enterotoxins [non-hemolytic enterotoxin (Nhe), hemolysin BL (Hbl), cytotoxin K, and enterotoxin FM], the emetic toxin cereulide and insecticidal Bt toxins. This is the first study evaluating the presence of B. cereus in packaging material. Among 75 different isolates, four phylogenetic groups were detected (II, III, IV, and VI), of which the groups III and IV were the most abundant with 46.7 and 41.3%, respectively. One isolate was affiliated to psychrotolerant group VI. Growth experiments showed a mesophilic predominance. Based on PCR analysis, nhe genes were detectable in 100% of the isolates, while hbl genes were only found in 50.7%. The cereulide encoding gene was found in four out of 75 isolates, no isolate carried a crystal toxin gene. In total, thirteen different toxin gene profiles were identified. We showed that a variety of B. cereus group strains can be found in packaging material. Here, this variety lies in the presence of four phylogenetic groups, thirteen toxin gene profiles, and different growth temperatures. The results suggest that packaging material does not contain significant amounts of highly virulent strains, and the low number of cereulide producing strains is in accordance with other results.
Highlights
The Bacillus cereus group, called Bacillus cereus sensu lato (B. cereus s.l.) comprises at least eight different gram-positive, aerobic and endospore-forming species, including B. cereus sensu stricto (s.s.), B. thuringiensis, B. anthracis, B. weihenstephanensis, and B. cytotoxicus (Liu et al, 2015)
B. cereus has been frequently isolated from numerous sources, its occurrence in packaging materials has been poorly investigated
We reported B. cereus in the majority of packaging material samples included in this study
Summary
The Bacillus cereus group, called Bacillus cereus sensu lato (B. cereus s.l.) comprises at least eight different gram-positive, aerobic and endospore-forming species, including B. cereus sensu stricto (s.s.), B. thuringiensis, B. anthracis, B. weihenstephanensis, and B. cytotoxicus (Liu et al, 2015) They are ubiquitous and have been frequently reported in soil, sediments, water, and plants in a variety of natural environments (Von Stetten et al, 1999; Stenfors Arnesen et al, 2008; Brillard et al, 2015) as well as from fresh vegetables, rice, spices, raw meat and meat products, fish and seafood, dairy products and ready-to-eat foods (Konuma et al, 1988; Granum et al, 1993; Rahmati and Labbe, 2008; Samapundo et al, 2011; Carter et al, 2018; Fiedler et al, 2019; Yu et al, 2020). Two types of gastrointestinal syndromes are associated to B. cereus, the diarrheal type caused by enterotoxins and the emetic type caused by the plasmid encoded toxin cereulide (Stenfors Arnesen et al, 2008).
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