title: The risk to public health of aeromonas in ready-to-eat salad products.
abstract: Mesophilic Aeromonas spp. are isolated regularly from cases of gastrointestinal infection and have markers indicative of enteropathogenicity. Is aeromonas, which is present in a large proportion of ready-to-eat salads, actually a gastrointestinal pathogen? Isolates of mesophilic aeromonas from salads were characterised in terms of their ability to grow at refrigeration temperatures over the given shelf life and by the presence of markers of potential virulence. The major phenospecies present in salads, A.caviae, showed little enteropathogenic potential. Thirty-five per cent of aeromonas salad isolates are A.hydrophila or A.sobria, however, and all isolates tested had at least one marker of enteropathogenicity, including cytotoxin and haemolysin production, adherence to epithelial cells, and resistance to certain antibiotics Despite the presence of markers of enteropathogencity, the lack of epidemiological evidence of a link between infectious intestinal disease and the consumption of salads suggests that their contamination with aeromonas does not pose a significant risk to health in immunocompetent adults.
authors.affiliation: Exeter Public Health Laboratory, Heavitree, Exeter. k.l.mattick@ex.ac.uk
authors.forename: K L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Mattick
authors.forename: T J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Donovan
mesh_terms: D000333:Aeromonas / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D004352:Drug Resistance, Microbial; D005506:Food Contamination; D005516:Food Microbiology; D005767:Gastrointestinal Diseases / Q000382:microbiology*; D006801:Humans; D008828:Microbiological Techniques; D014675:Vegetables; D014774:Virulence