Accuracy of REP-PCR Method in Genotyping of Enterococcus faecium Isolated From Red Meat as a Cause of Foodborne Infections

Abstract

Background & aim: Increasing food consumption outdoors in different societies has raised the risk of transmission of foodborne pathogens as a global health problem. Molecular typing methods such as REP-PCR produced DNA profiles for differentiation and characterization of pathogenic strains. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the accuracy of molecular fingerprinting method based on repeated sequences (rep-PCR) to determine the affinities between different of Enterococcus faecium isolated from beef meat as a cause of foodborne infections. Methods: The present cross-sectional descriptive-analytical study was conducted in 2018 on 80 meat samples examined by biochemical and molecular methods for the presence of Enterococcus faecium. The molecular pattern of DNA fragments was determined based on the presence or absence of bands and their size in gel electrophoresis. The collected data were analyzed using NTSYS software version 2.02e and Cofenet correlation coefficient. Results: Of the total 80 samples, 66 (82.5%) were identified as Enterococcus, while 30 (45.45%) were Enterococcus faecium. Based on Genetic Classification by Rep-PCR, 30 isolates of Enterococcus faecium were included in 18 profiles. Placement of the studied isolates in several subgroups showed the acceptable discrimination power of Rep-PCR technique in genotyping of Enterococcus faecium. Conclusion: The results of the present study revealed that Rep-PCR is a simple, fast, and highly dispersive method to describe the genetic diversity of Enterococcus faecium strains.and method with high dispersal ability to characterize the genetic diversity of Enterococcus faecium strains.

Keywords

• enterococcus faecium
• genotyping
• red meat
• rep-pcr