title: Recovery of Staphylococcus aureus in Gray Mugil cephalus Roe (Bottarga): Investigation by an Integrated Cultural/Molecular Approach.
abstract: In the Mediterranean area, salted and dried roe from the gray Mugil cephalus "bottarga" represent a speciality food with great commercial value. Bottarga is currently produced by a traditional handmade process and, the risk of human bacterial contamination during its manufacturing is still unknown; in this perspective the foodborne pathogen Staphylococcus aureus could potentially contaminate this product due to poor sanitation or bad handling during processing. The aim of this work is: to evaluate the contamination level of foodborne pathogens at different product manufacturing stages and, in addition, to describe a fast and realizable method for the rapid detection of S. aureus in bottarga samples in the field. A cultural procedure was initially used to investigate the occurrence of S. aureus and the other main foodborne pathogens in bottarga samples at the different manufacturing stages (from roe to final product). In addition, a molecular approach was used to rapidly determine the presence of total bacteria, S. aureus, and its potential toxigenicity. Of the 194 specimens analyzed, we identified: Clostridium perfringens, Enterococcus spp. and Enterobacteriaceae. However, some samples resulted as being contaminated with S. aureus (4% in roe and 8.7% in the final product). During the bottarga manufacturing process, we observed an increase in pathogen levels (from 10(2) to 10(5) CFU/g) in contaminated samples, and entA and entB genotypes were identified. Reconstruction experiments suggest that the fresh roe and the bottarga (not completely dried) could represent a risk for the contamination and growth of pathogen bacteria.
authors.affiliation: Public Health Dept, Univ. di Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy.
authors.forename: Valeria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Brandas
authors.affiliation: IDNA Sequencing Service (DSS), Univ. di Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy.
authors.forename: Germano
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Orrù
authors.affiliation: Public Health Dept, Univ. di Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy.
authors.forename: Valentina
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Carraro
authors.affiliation: Public Health Dept, Univ. di Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy.
authors.forename: Adriana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sanna
authors.affiliation: IZS of Lazio-Tuscany, State Veterinary Inst, Florence, Italy.
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Brajon
authors.affiliation: Fish Disease and Aquaculture Centre, IZS of Sardinia State Veterinary Inst., Oristano, Italy.
authors.forename: Fulvio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Salati
authors.affiliation: Fish Disease and Aquaculture Centre, IZS of Sardinia State Veterinary Inst., Oristano, Italy.
authors.forename: Clara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sanna
authors.affiliation: IDNA Sequencing Service (DSS), Univ. di Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy.
authors.forename: Maria Laura
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Ciusa
authors.affiliation: Dipt. di Scienze degli Alimenti, Univ. degli Studi di Udine, Udine, Italy.
authors.forename: Mauro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Meloni
authors.affiliation: Public Health Dept, Univ. di Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy.
authors.forename: Valentina
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Coroneo
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001427:Bacterial Toxins / Q000235:genetics; D003016:Clostridium perfringens; D004531:Eggs / Q000382:microbiology*; D004755:Enterobacteriaceae; D016983:Enterococcus; D004768:Enterotoxins / Q000235:genetics; D005516:Food Microbiology; D006801:Humans; D017747:Seafood / Q000382:microbiology*; D023701:Smegmamorpha / Q000382:microbiology*; D013203:Staphylococcal Infections / Q000382:microbiology; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development*
chemical_list: D001427:Bacterial Toxins; D004768:Enterotoxins
keywords: Staphylococcus aureus; bottarga; femA gene; fish roe; real-time PCR