P1-158 Prevalence, Antibiotic Susceptibility and Genetic Diversity of Cronobacter spp. from Desiccated Ready-to-Eat Products in Korea

Monday, July 23, 2012
Exhibit Hall (Rhode Island Convention Center)
Kwang-Young Song, Konkuk University, Seoul, South Korea
Jung-Whan Chon, Konkuk University, Seoul, South Korea
Dong-Hyeon Kim, Konkuk University, Seoul, South Korea
Ji-Yeon Hyeon, Konkuk University, Seoul, South Korea
Jin-Hyeok Yim, Konkuk University, Seoul, South Korea
Jun-Ho Park, Konkuk University, Seoul, South Korea
Yun-Gyeong Kim, Konkuk University, Seoul, South Korea
Chang-Hyeon Sung, Konkuk University, Seoul, South Korea
Soo-Kyong Lee, Konkuk University, Seoul, South Korea
Hong-Seok Kim, Konkuk University, Seoul, South Korea
Ah-Sa Oh, Konkuk University, Seoul, South Korea
Jong-Ik Lee, Konkuk University, Seoul, South Korea
Kun-Ho Seo, Konkuk University, Seoul, South Korea

Introduction: Cronobacter spp. are considered to be an emerging opportunistic human pathogen and an etiological agent of life-threatening infections in infants. Symptoms include neonatal meningitis, sepsis and necrotizing enterocolitis, with a 40-80% mortality rate. Desiccated agriculture and marine products used as dry ingredients in PIF or baby food could be a dangerous source of Cronobacterinfection in infants. Moreover, desiccated foods also can cause illness in elderly or immunocompromised adults, because some agricultural and marine desiccated foods are routinely consumed without further heat process in Korea.

Purpose:  One hundred fourteen desiccated ready-to-eat food samples, including agricultural and marine products, were investigated for the presence of Cronobacter from January 2011 to January 2012.

Methods:  Antibiotic resistance was assessed with the disk diffusion method, and the molecular subtypes of Cronobacterisolates were identified using an automated rep-PCR (repetitive sequence-based PCR) system.

Results: Thirteen Cronobacter strains (11.4%) were finally isolated from 114 desiccated Ready-to-Eat products. The most common antibiotic resistance of Cronobacter observed was against cephalothin (69.2%) followed by ampicllin (7.6%), but was susceptible to chloramphenicol (100%), ciprofloxacin (100%), gentamicin (100%), nalidixic acid (100%), tetracycline (100%), streptomocycin (100%). Also Cronobacter strains isolated from different sources were generally differentiated by using the automated rep-PCR system, indicating that it could be used for the purpose of contamination source tracking of the foodborne pathogen bacteria including Cronobacterspp. 

Significance:  The prevalence of foodborne pathogenic bacteria in desiccated ready-to-eat foods, and also the profiles of their antibiotic resistance determined in this study could be useful for the risk assessment of the potential infection of Cronobacter.