Prevalence of Listeria monocytogenes, Yersinia enterocolitica, Staphylococcus aureus , and Salmonella enterica Typhimurium in meat and meat products using multiplex polymerase chain reaction

The objective of the study was to investigate the occurrence of , and Typhimurium in meat and meat products using the multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method. The assay combined an enrichment step in tryptic soy broth with yeast extract formulated for the simultaneous growth of target pathogens, DNA isolation and multiplex PCR. A total of 1134 samples including beef (n=349), chicken (n=325), pork (n=310), chevon (n=50), and meat products (n=100) were collected from different parts of Kerala, India. All the samples were subjected to multiplex PCR analysis and culture-based detection for the four pathogens in parallel. Overall occurrence of was 0.08 % by cultural method. However, no was obtained by multiplex PCR method. was obtained from beef and pork samples. A high prevalence of (46.7%) was found in all types of meat samples tested. None of the samples was positive for S. Typhimurium. Multiplex PCR assay used in this study can detect more than one pathogen simultaneously by amplifying more than one target gene in a single reaction, which can save time and labor cost.