Rapid Molecular Technique for Detection of Food Borne Bacillus cereus Pathogen

 Bacillus cereus is accountable for several outbreaks of diseases spread by food. Therefore, the study aimed to use routine culture methods and direct PCR to detect the foodborne bacterial pathogen and its enterotoxins.

 In the present study, a total of 75 Kibda sandwiches, Sausage sandwiches, Chicken Luncheons, Beef Meat luncheons, and Chicken shawarma (Fifteen samples of each) were collected from different places in Kafr El-Sheikh governorate, Egypt, from July to September 2022. isolation, identification, and rapid analysis by PCR were done to find Foodborne bacterial pathogens in samples.

Bacterial isolation revealed 17 positive samples from different food types. From 17 infected samples, 40% were Kibda, 26.6% were Sausage, 20% were Chicken luncheon, and 13.3% were positive for Meat luncheon and Chicken shawarma sandwiches. Using PCR to identify B. cereus from positive isolates (group A), 8 isolates were detected having groEL, nhe & cytK genes amplified at 533, 766, and 421 bp respectively. Also, the PCR, which was used to detection of Bacillus cereus directly in positive samples (group B) and revealed that 8 B. cereus in samples with its enterotoxins genes nhe & cytK, while group C which represents some random food samples of negative isolation results revealed that 3 samples were infected by Bacillus cereus.

 PCR assay was a sensitive & specific diagnostic tool in detecting Bacillus cereus with its enterotoxins genes directly from food samples, even in the presence of low numbers of B. cereus bacteria that traditional isolation and identification methods cannot detect.