engleski

Diversity of enterococcal community isolated from artisan Croatian raw milk cheese ; technological and safety aspects

Introduction: Istrian cheese is artisan Croatian product that is manufactured on the Istrian peninsula from raw ewe's milk without the addition of starter cultures. Enterococci were found to be one of the dominant bacterial population over the ripening process of Istrian cheese when DGGE or next generation sequencing were applied and they remained at the high level in to ready to eat cheese matrix. Although the dynamic of microbial communities in Istrian cheese is analyzed in details by culture independent methods, such molecular, sequencing based assay did not allow distinguishing between Enterococcus species (E. faecalis, E. faecium and/or E. durans) or providing the information on intraspecies variability. They have obviously important, but unknown role, during the ripening process of Istrian cheese and their high number in ready to eat cheese arise questions about their possible influence on human health, especially because of transfer of antibiotic resistance genes to more pathogenic species in human GIT. The aim of this study was to identify and in details characterize members of enterococcal community during the ripening of Istrian cheese such to assess the role and potential of enterococci over the artisan food aging process and to select novel strains with interesting features that could be used as adjutant cultures for fermented foods. Special focus was set towards the surveillance rate of indigenous cheese enterococci in GIT as well as detection of their antibiotic resistance and virulence traits.

Microbial diversity; enterococci; antibiotic resistance

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