Microbial growth and attachment of Salmonella and enterohemorrhagic and enteroaggregative Escherichia coli strains on cress microgreens grown in peat soil system
ISSN: 0007-070X
Article publication date: 20 December 2021
Issue publication date: 1 November 2022
Abstract
Purpose
This study aimed to investigate how enteric pathogens and their biofilm populations on fresh produce survive according to time that contamination has occurred on leaves and contamination route: seed irrigation water.
Design/methodology/approach
Cress was contaminated in two different ways: contamination of seeds and irrigation water with 8-log MPN/mL bacterial load, Salmonella Newport, Escherichia coli O157:H7, O104:H4 or O78:H2. While contaminated seeds were cultivated for seed contamination, contaminated irrigation was applied at the end of each week to separate groups of samples obtained from cultivated surface-sterile seeds to understand how long these pathogens could survive until harvest.
Findings
The results indicated these pathogens survived until harvest, and formed biofilms on cress leaves grown using both contaminated seeds and irrigation water. No significant difference was observed among populations of Salmonella and E. coli groups in terms of survival (∼4.5–6.0 log MPN/g) and biofilm formation (∼4.4–5.7 log MPN/g) for contamination by seed. Also, SEM images revealed biofilm-like structures, the proofs of the attachment of these pathogens on leaf surfaces.
Originality/value
From our knowledge this is the first study focusing on the survival and biofilm formation of one Salmonella serotype (Newport) and three E. coli serotypes (O157:H7, O104:H4, and O78:H2), representing enterohemorrhagic and enteroaggregative E. coli pathogenic subgroups, under the same irrigation and growth schemes. Furthermore, this study mimics the contamination of seeds and irrigation water with sewage or wastewater and may shed light on contamination of fresh produce grown using poor wastewater treatment.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey [grant number: 118O673]. We also acknowledge the valuable contribution of Dr. Nuray Çömlekçioğlu (Department of Horticulture, Eskisehir Osmangazi University) on growing the plants.
Credit authorship contribution statement: Sahin Namli: Methodology, Investigation, Writing - Original Draft, Writing - Review & Editing. Hilal Samut: Methodology, Formal analysis, Investigation, Writing - Original Draft, Writing - Review & Editing. Yesim Soyer: Methodology, Writing - Review & Editing, Supervision, Funding acquisition.
Conflicts of interest: The authors declare they have no conflicts of interest.
Citation
Namli, S., Samut, H. and Soyer, Y. (2022), "Microbial growth and attachment of
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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