title: Diversity of culturable psychrophilic and psychrotrophic anaerobic bacteria isolated from beef abattoirs and their environments.
abstract: This study identified 431 psychrophilic or psychrotrophic isolates from commercial Irish beef abattoir environments and "blown packs" of vacuum-packed beef, using PCR and 16S rRNA sequencing, and estimated their intraspecies genetic diversity using restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis and spacer region PCR (SR-PCR). Twenty-five species were identified in the 431 isolates, with the most frequently recovered species being Clostridium gasigenes (n=315), Clostridium estertheticum (n=17), and a potentially novel species designated strain TC1 (n=52). These species were previously found to be associated with a particular type of spoilage known as blown-pack spoilage (BPS), which occurs in chilled-stored (i.e., -1.5°C to 4°C) vacuum-packaged meat within 2 to 4 weeks and involves the production of large volumes of gas. Overall, the study demonstrates the considerable and not previously reported diversity of the anaerobic microflora in abattoirs and the presence of a wide range of organisms capable of causing BPS at chilled temperatures.
authors.affiliation: Teagasc, Ashtown Food Research Centre, Ashtown, Dublin 15, Ireland.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Moschonas
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Bolton
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: McDowell
authors.forename: J J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Sheridan
mesh_terms: D000003:Abattoirs; D000818:Animals; D001421:Bacteria, Anaerobic / Q000145:classification* / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism; D002417:Cattle; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D003080:Cold Temperature; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; D004783:Environmental Microbiology; D007494:Ireland; D008460:Meat / Q000382:microbiology*; D058889:Molecular Typing; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S