Abstract
Cronobacter sakazakii (Enterobacter sakazakii) is an emerging pathogen that causes necrotizing enterocolitis, sepsis, and meningitis. This bacterium is opportunistic pathogen and is linked with life-threatening infections in neonates and elderly persons. It is considered as ubiquitous organism and can be found in a broad range of foods & food ingredients and in water, in a variety of areas, including hospitals and houses though outbreaks most commonly associated with the ingestion of contaminated powdered infant formula (PIF). International Commission on Microbiological Specifications for Foods has ranked C. sakazakii a “severe hazard for restricted populations.” It poses high tolerance to environmental stresses such as osmotic stress, elevated temperature etc. and decontamination processes and has broad antibiotic resistance and resistance to bile salts and disinfectants. Cronobacter sakazakii may survive in macrophage cells and efficiently attach to and invade epithelial cell lines, produce exopolysaccharide, form biofilm and has active efflux pumps. Controlling the organism in the production environment, thereby reducing dissemination, necessitates the provision of suitable diagnostic tools. Appropriate measures by parents, food and infant formula manufacturers, and health care providers, as well as understanding of the pathogenesis, are important in the prevention of C. sakazakii-related infections.
Highlights
Cronobacter spp. are opportunistic food borne pathogens associated with infections in neonates and infants, those that are premature or immune-compromised[1]
This subspecies was accepted as a distinct species, namely Cronobacter malonaticus after www.ssjournals.com subsequent DNA-DNA hybridisation indicated that the C. malonaticus strains had DNA homology values of less than 70 % with the other Cronobacter species[33]
powdered infant formula (PIF) has been fed to millions of infants for years, and it constitutes the majority of infant formula used worldwide
Summary
Cronobacter spp. are opportunistic food borne pathogens associated with infections in neonates and infants, those that are premature or immune-compromised[1]. Low contamination levels (1 cfu.[100] g-1) of Cronobacter sakazakii can have a severe impact on health and the rapid detection and correct identification of these pathogens are important for food safety[3]. Www.ssjournals.com infections, namely C. sakazakii, C. malonaticus and C. turicensis have the genes encoding for a cation efflux system which allows bacteria to invade brain micro vascular endothelial cells. As it is still unclear whether all of the species are virulent, the genus is currently classified as pathogenic. The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has been shown to be a more reliable approach to identifying Cronobacter in comparison with the conventional identification techniques[23,24]
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