Abstract
ABSTRACTThe aim of the present work is to provide information about Enterococcus strains isolated from traditional Turkish cheese samples in Ankara (Turkey), focusing on their prevalence, phenotypic and genotypic characteristics, and antibiotic resistance. A total of 213 probable enterococcal isolates isolated from 215 samples were identified by phenotypic and genotypic methods. As a result of 16S rDNA sequence analysis, 88 of the 213 enterococci strains were identified as Enterococcus faecium and 125 as Enterococcus faecalis. The E. faecalis strains (58.7%) were identified as the dominant species isolated from cheese samples in Turkey. The 213 Enterococcus strains were tested for susceptibility to 12 different antimicrobial agents. The resistance phenotype were as follow: nalidixic acid (100%), kanamycin (98.6%), rifampicin (78.4%), ampicillin (48.8%), ciprofloxacin (45.5%), erythromycin (18.8%), tetracycline (11.7%), penicillin G (5.6%), chloramphenicol (4.2%), gentamycin (3.8%) and streptomycin (1.4%). None of the strains was resistant to vancomycin. E. faecium strains showed more resistant phenotypes than E. faecalis strains as shown by the antibiotic resistance levels. It was also observed that the resistance of E. faecium and E. faecalis strains against the antibiotics was statistically significant (p ˂ 0.05). In total, 100% of E. faecium and 88.8% of E. faecalis strains were resistant to multiple drugs.
Highlights
Enterococcus was first determined as intestinal bacteria by Thiercelinin 1899
In previous studies in Turkey,[26,27,28,29] the prevalence of enterococci in cheese samples was reported to range between 62% and 99%
This study focused on the isolation and identification of strains which belong to genus Enterococcus isolated from traditional cheeses retailed in Turkey and to determine their antibiotic resistance
Summary
Enterococcus was first determined as intestinal bacteria by Thiercelinin 1899. In 1906, Andrewes and Horder identified a potentially pathogenic bacterium isolated from a patient with endocarditis and renamed Thiercelin’s enterococcias Streptococcus faecalis.[1]. Unlike most of the other LAB, European Food Safety Authority recommended that they are not recognized as safe in the qualified presumption of safety.[5] These organisms occur in soil, surface waters, insects, plants, gastrointestinal tract of human and warm-blooded animals.[1] they are found in different food sources such as cheeses, meat, vegetables and olives.[6] Enterococcus faecium and Enterococcus faecalis are the most frequently isolated Enterococcus species in food industry.[7,8] These bacteria can play a positive function in cheeses and meats as a starter or probiotic cultures. In addition to their technological properties, some enterococci, mainly E. faecalis and E
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