title: Virulence and genotypic characterization of Listeria monocytogenes isolated from vegetable and soil samples.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Listeria monocytogenes, a foodborne pathogen is ubiquitous to different environments including the agroecosystem. The organism poses serious public health problem. Therefore, an attempt has been made to gain further insight to their antibiotic susceptibility, serotypes and the virulence genes.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Out of the 10 vegetables selected, 6 (brinjal, cauliflower, dolichos-bean, tomato, chappan-kaddu and chilli), 20 isolates (10%) tested positive for L. monocytogenes. The prevalence of the pathogen in the respective rhizosphere soil samples was 5%. Noticeably, L. monocytogenes was absent from only cabbage, broccoli, palak and cowpea, and also the respective rhizospheric soils. The 30 isolates + ve for pathogenicity, belonged to serogroup 4b, 4d or 4e, and all were positive for inlA, inlC, inlJ, plcA, prfA, actA, hlyA and iap gene except one (VC3) among the vegetable isolates that lacked the plcA gene. ERIC- and REP-PCR collectively revealed that isolates from vegetables and their respective rhizospheric soils had distinct PCR fingerprints.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The study demonstrates the prevalence of pathogenic L. monocytogenes in the selected agricultural farm samples. The increase in the number of strains resistant to ciprofloxacin and/or cefoxitin seems to pose serious public health consequences.
authors.forename: Dharmendra Kumar
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Soni
authors.forename: Major
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: Durg Vijai
authors.initials: DV
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: Suresh Kumar
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Dubey
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D014644:Genetic Variation; D008089:Listeria monocytogenes / Q000145:classification / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics* / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D058889:Molecular Typing; D065288:Serogroup; D012988:Soil Microbiology; D014675:Vegetables / Q000382:microbiology*; D037521:Virulence Factors / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D037521:Virulence Factors