Poultry and beef meat as potential seedbeds for antimicrobial resistant enterotoxigenic Bacillus species: a materializing epidemiological and potential severe health hazard

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 8; no. 1; pp. 11600 - 15
• Main Authors: Osman, Kamelia M., Kappell, Anthony D., Orabi, Ahmed, Al-Maary, Khalid S., Mubarak, Ayman S., Dawoud, Turki M., Hemeg, Hassan A., Moussa, Ihab M. I., Hessain, Ashgan M., Yousef, Hend M. Y., Hristova, Krassimira R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 02-08-2018; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 45; 45/29; 45/77; 631/1647/1513; 631/326/22/1290; 631/326/2522; Antibiotic resistance; Antibiotics; Antimicrobial agents; Antimicrobial resistance; Bacillus; Bacillus cereus - genetics; Bacillus cereus - isolation & purification; Bacillus cereus - pathogenicity; Bacterial Proteins - genetics; Drug resistance; Drug Resistance, Bacterial; Epidemiology; Food Microbiology; Food safety; Genotype & phenotype; Health hazards; Humanities and Social Sciences; Meat; Meat - microbiology; multidisciplinary; Multidrug resistance; Paenibacillus - genetics; Paenibacillus - isolation & purification; Poultry Products - microbiology; Public health; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Species; Statistical analysis; Virulence factors; Virulence Factors - genetics
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-29932-3

Although
Bacillus cereus
is of particular concern in food safety and public health, the role of other
Bacillus
species was overlooked. Therefore, we investigated the presence of eight enterotoxigenic genes, a hemolytic gene and phenotypic antibiotic resistance profiles of
Bacillus
species in retail meat samples. From 255 samples, 124
Bacillus
isolates were recovered, 27 belonged to
B
.
cereus
and 97 were non-
B
.
cereus
species. Interestingly, the non-
B
.
cereus
isolates carried the virulence genes and exhibited phenotypic virulence characteristics as the
B
.
cereus
. However, correlation matrix analysis revealed the
B
.
cereus
group positively correlates with the presence of the genes
hblA
,
hblC
, and
plc
, and the detection of hemolysis (
p
 < 0.05), while the other
Bacillus
sp. groups are negatively correlated. Tests for antimicrobial resistance against ten antibiotics revealed extensive drug and multi-drug resistant isolates. Statistical analyses didn’t support a correlation of antibiotic resistance to tested virulence factors suggesting independence of these phenotypic markers and virulence genes. Of special interest was the isolation of
Paenibacillus alvei
and
Geobacillus stearothermophilus
from the imported meat samples being the first recorded. The isolation of non-
B
.
cereus
species carrying enterotoxigenic genes in meat within Egypt, suggests their impact on food safety and public health and should therefore not be minimised, posing an area that requires further research.