Genotypic and Phenotypic Evaluation of Antimicrobial Resistance of Listeria monocytogenes and Environmental Microbiota Obtained from Food Processing Environments
- Author
- Bartlett, Katie
- Published
- [University Park, Pennsylvania] : Pennsylvania State University, 2022.
- Physical Description
- 1 electronic document
- Additional Creators
- Kovac, Jasna and Schreyer Honors College
Access Online
- honors.libraries.psu.edu , Connect to this object online.
- Restrictions on Access
- Open Access.
- Summary
- L. monocytogenes is a pathogenic Gram-positive microorganism found in food processing and packaging facilities. The risk of food contamination with L. monocytogenes increases when L. monocytogenes withstands cleaning and sanitizing procedures designed to control foodborne pathogens. Failure to control L. monocytogenes in food processing environments can result in outbreaks of fatal disease listeriosis. Furthermore, L. monocytogenes has been found to co-exist in food packing environments with non-pathogenic bacterial families, including Xanthomonadaceae, Pseudomonadaceae, Microbacteriaceae and Flavobacteriaceae. These non-pathogenic microorganisms may contribute to biofilm formation and increased tolerance to sanitizers, if not effectively controlled with sanitizers. Not only have L. monocytogenes strains shown resistance to industrial sanitizers, but resistance has also become a concern with clinically relevant antibiotics that are used to treat human listeriosis. In order to effectively control L. monocytogenes in food processing environments and to effectively treat listeriosis, it is important to monitor the resistance of L. monocytogenes and food processing environmental microbiota to industrially and clinically relevant antimicrobials (i.e., sanitizers, antibiotics). Better understanding of the resistance of L. monocytogenes and environmental microbiota to sanitizers can inform proper cleaning and sanitizing procedures to prevent food contamination. Furthermore, understanding of the resistance of L. monocytogenes can inform the selection of antimicrobials for treatment of foodborne listeriosis. In this thesis, we measured the prevalence of antimicrobial resistance among L. monocytogenes and environmental microbiota isolates obtained from tree fruit packing facilities. We utilized broth microdilution assay to test the resistance to clinically relevant antibiotics (i.e., ampicillin, ceftriaxone, and gentamicin), as well as commonly used sanitizers (i.e., benzyl alkanium chloride and peracetic acid). Furthermore, we whole-genome sequenced the environmental isolates and analyzed sequences to study the association between antimicrobial resistance genes and phenotypic antimicrobial resistance.
- Other Subject(s)
- Genre(s)
- Dissertation Note
- B.S. Pennsylvania State University 2022.
- Technical Details
- The full text of the dissertation is available as an Adobe Acrobat .pdf file ; Adobe Acrobat Reader required to view the file.
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