Accuracy of REP-PCR method in genotyping of Enterococcus fascia isolated from red meat as a cause of foodborne infections

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 this study was to evaluate the accuracy of molecular fingerprinting method based on repeated sequences (rep-PCR) to determine the affinities between different of Enterococcus fascia isolated from beef meat sold in Shahrekord retail markets.

In this descriptive cross-sectional study, 80 meat samples were examined by biochemical and molecular methods for the presence of Enterococcus fascia and the molecular patterns were determined on the basis of the existence or absence of DNA fragments were separated according to their size by agarose gel electrophoresis. By using a computer program NTSYS version2.02e, dendrogram were drawn.

Of the 80 samples, 66 (82.5%) were identified as Enterococcus, while 30 (45.45%) were Enterococcus fascia. Based on Genetic Classification by Rep-PCR, 30 isolates of Enterococcus fascia 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 fascia.

 The results of this study showed that Rep-PCR is a simple, fast, and method with high dispersal ability to characterize the genetic diversity of Enterococcus fascia strains.