Cheese as a Reservoir for Antimicrobial Resistance of Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus spp. (pp.1-38)
$100.00
Authors: (Imane Saleh, Elie Barbour, Taha Kumosani, Steve Harakeh, Biology Department, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon, and others)
Abstract: Among food products involved in the transmission of food-borne
diseases are dairy-based foods including cheese. Although cheese is
considered as a low risk product, it has been associated with many outbreaks
of food-borne illnesses worldwide. Many of those illnesses are caused by
pathogenic bacteria. Bacteria are omnipresent in the environment especially
in places which provide a conducive milieu for their growth. As a general
rule, the use of un-pasteurized milk, insufficient growth of starter
microorganisms and post processing handling are major risk factors in the
contamination of cheese. An important problem scientists faced in the past
was the difficulty in isolating the different bacteria from foods and the
inability to identify the isolates with a high degree of certainty. However,
with the advent of modern molecular biology techniques, such as polymerase
chain reaction (PCR), this problem has been resolved. Another major health
risk is the acquirement of antimicrobial resistance. The uncontrolled use of
antimicrobials has led to the emergence of multidrug resistant strains; such
infectious agents cannot be treated using the conventional drugs. Therefore,
the search for the development of new therapies has been sought. The
development of such resistance has caused many deaths and is a major
economic burden. This review focuses on the presence of two representative
pathogenic bacteria (a Gram-positive and a Gram-negative) in cheese and
their resistance to different antimicrobial agents.
