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Differentiation of Staphylococcus aureus from freshly slaughtered poultry and strains ‘endemic’to processing plants by biochemical and physiological tests
Author(s) -
Mead G.C.,
Norris A.P.,
Bratchell N.
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
journal of applied bacteriology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.889
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1365-2672
pISSN - 0021-8847
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2672.1989.tb02464.x
Subject(s) - biology , staphylococcus aureus , microbiology and biotechnology , colonization , veterinary medicine , strain (injury) , agar plate , agar , bacteria , medicine , genetics , anatomy
A comparison was made of 27 ‘endemic’ strains of Staphylococcus aureus and 35 strains from freshly slaughtered birds, isolated at five commercial slaughterhouses processing chickens or turkeys. Of 112 biochemical and physiological tests used, 74 gave results which differed among the strains. Cluster analysis revealed several distinct groupings which were influenced by strain type, processing plant and bird origin; these included a single group at the 72% level of similarity containing most of the ‘endemic’ strains. In comparison with strains from freshly slaughtered birds, a higher proportion of ‘endemic’ strains produced fibrinolysin, aP‐glucosidase and urease and were β‐haemolytic on sheep‐blood agar. The ‘endemic’ type also showed a greater tendency to coagulate human but not bovine plasma, and to produce mucoid growth and clumping. The last two properties, relevant to colonization of processing equipment, were less evident in heart infusion broth than in richer media or process water collected during defeathering of the birds.