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. 2023 Jul 24:7:100554.
doi: 10.1016/j.crfs.2023.100554. eCollection 2023.

Occurrence, molecular characterization and antibiotic resistance of Cronobacter spp. isolated from wet rice and flour products in Guangdong, China

Qi Li  1 , Chengsi Li  1 , Qinghua Ye  1 , Qihui Gu  1 , Shi Wu  1 , Youxiong Zhang  1 , Xianhu Wei  1 , Liang Xue  1 , Moutong Chen  1 , Haiyan Zeng  1 , Jumei Zhang  1 , Qingping Wu  1
Affiliations

Occurrence, molecular characterization and antibiotic resistance of Cronobacter spp. isolated from wet rice and flour products in Guangdong, China

Qi Li et al. Curr Res Food Sci. .

Abstract

This study explored the prevalence of Cronobacter spp. in wet rice and flour products from Guangdong province, China, the molecular characteristics and antimicrobial susceptibility profiles of the isolates were identified. Among 249 samples, 100 (40.16%) were positive for Cronobacter spp., including 77 wet rice and 23 wet flour products. Eleven serotypes were characterized among 136 isolates with C. sakazakii O2 (n = 32) predominating. Forty-nine MLST patterns were assigned, 15 of which were new. C. sakazakii ST4 (n = 17) was the dominant ST, which is previously reported to have caused three deaths; followed by C. malonaticus ST7 (n = 15), which is connected to adult infections. All strains presented susceptibility to ampicillin/sulbactam, imipenem, aztreonam and trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole. The isolates showed maximum resistance to cephalothin, and the resistance and intermediate rates were 91.91% and 3.68%, each. Two strains, croM234A1 and croM283-1, displayed resistance to three antibiotics. High contamination level and predominant number of pathogenic STs of Cronobacter in wet rice and flour products implied a potential risk to public healthiness. This survey could provide comprehensive information for establishing more targeted control methods for Cronobacter spp.

Keywords: Antimicrobial susceptibility; Cronobacter; MLST; Serotyping; Wet rice and flour products.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declared that they have no conflicts of interest to this work.

Figures

Image 1
Graphical abstract
Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Clustering relationship between Cronobacter spp. isolated in this study. BioNumerics 8.1.1 software was used to produce a minimum spanning tree relying on MLST results of the 136 Cronobacter isolates obtained from 259 samples of wet rice and flour products. Each ST was represented by one circle and the ST numbers were displayed next to the corresponding circles. The circle diameter was associated with isolate number of corresponding ST. The colors within the circles were the symbols of the relevant serotypes (A) and sources (B). (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)
Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Clustering relationship between Cronobacter spp. isolated in this study. BioNumerics 8.1.1 software was used to produce a minimum spanning tree relying on MLST results of the 136 Cronobacter isolates obtained from 259 samples of wet rice and flour products. Each ST was represented by one circle and the ST numbers were displayed next to the corresponding circles. The circle diameter was associated with isolate number of corresponding ST. The colors within the circles were the symbols of the relevant serotypes (A) and sources (B). (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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