Dairy farm reservoir of Listeria monocytogenes sporadic and epidemic strains.
Identifying the reservoirs of a pathogen is vital for control of sporadic disease and epidemics. Listeria monocytogenes is a zoonotic foodborne pathogen that is responsible for 28% of food-related deaths in the United States annually, as well as a major cause of massive product recalls worldwide. To examine the role of the dairy farm as a potential source or reservoir for L. monocytogenes subtypes shown to cause human listeriosis, we compared the pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) restriction enzyme digestion profiles of L. monocytogenes dairy farm-associated strains (milk, environmental, and bovine) to human sporadic and epidemic disease strains. Twenty-three percent of human sporadic strains had PFGE patterns identical to that of farm isolate(s). Additionally, three farm environmental strains and one human sporadic strain had a PFGE pattern identical to a strain of L. monocytogenes responsible for the 1985 California epidemic. These data indicate that this epidemic strain continues to cause sporadic human illness and has a potential dairy farm as a reservoir.
Borucki
Monica K
MK
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Animal Disease Research Unit, Pullman, Washington 99164-6630, USA. mborucki@vetmed.wsu.edu
Reynolds
James
J
Gay
Clive C
CC
McElwain
Katherine L
KL
Kim
So Hyun
SH
Knowles
Donald P
DP
Hu
Jinxin
J
D000818:Animals; D015373:Bacterial Typing Techniques; D002417:Cattle; D003612:Dairying; D004196:Disease Outbreaks / Q000517:prevention & control; D004197:Disease Reservoirs / Q000662:veterinary; D016521:Electrophoresis, Gel, Pulsed-Field; D004783:Environmental Microbiology; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000032:analysis*; D005516:Food Microbiology; D006801:Humans; D008089:Listeria monocytogenes / Q000145:classification / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D008088:Listeriosis / Q000382:microbiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D008892:Milk / Q000382:microbiology*; D012703:Serotyping