DETECTION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF LISTERIA SPECIES FROM BUFFALO MEAT

Abstract

The isolation of Listeria spp. from buffalo meat samples sold in retail meat market was evaluated. Isolation of the Listeria was attempted from the samples by selective enrichment in University of Vermont Medium (UVM) and plating onto PALCAM, Oxford and Dominguez-Rodriguez isolation agar (DRIA). The pathogenicity of the isolates was tested by Christie, Atkins, Munch Petersen (CAMP) test and sugar fermentation patterns were used for identification of the isolates. Out of 150 buffalo meat samples examined, 10 (6.7%) samples were found positive for Listeria species, of which 4 (2.7%) were positive for L. monocytogenes, 2 (1.3%) for L. innocua, 3 (2.0%) for L. seeligeri and 1 (0.7%) for L. welshimeri. PALCAM yielded a cent percent isolates where as recovery rate on DRIA and Oxford agar was 90.0 and 60.0 percent, respectively. The PCR assay targeting iap gene was used for species specific detection L. monocytogenes isolates up to 2x10 1 CFU/ml.