Occurrence of Aliarcobacter spp in fresh and precut vegetables of common use in San José, Costa Rica

Abstract

Aliarcobacter is a Gram-negative rod that can cause disease both in animals and human beings. Several studies have evidenced its presence in a wide variety of foods. Given that the number of foodborne illness outbreaks linked to the consumption of vegetables has increased worldwide, and that there is a lack of information about the occurrence of Aliarcobacter spp. on these, the aim of this study was to evaluate its presence and the occurrence of virulence factors from both fresh and ready to eat vegetable samples. 180 vegetable samples from Costa Rica were analyzed for the presence of Aliarcobacter spp; including 90 pre-cut vegetable packages and 90 fresh vegetables. Two (2.2%) of the isolates from pre-cut vegetables and 19 (21.1%) of the isolates obtained from fresh vegetables were confirmed as Aliarcobacter spp. One of the isolates from the pre-cut vegetable samples was identified as A. butzleri, For the fresh vegetables, 11 isolates were identified as A. skirrowii, one as A. butzleri, and the 7 remaining isolates could not be identified at species level. There is a 87.5% of positivity for hecA and 93.8% for pldA, virulence genes in strains isolated from fresh produce contrasting with an absolute absence from pre-cut vegetable isolated strains. These results evidence the presence of Aliarcobacter on fresh and precut vegetables from Costa Rica and the potential hazard it might represent for Public Health.