Prevalence and Genetic Diversity of Listeria monocytogenes Isolated From Retail Pork in Wuhan, China

is a ubiquitous bacteria and causative agent of zoonotic listeriosis with high mortality. The consumption of contaminated animal-derived foods has been linked with both epidemic and sporadic listeriosis. In this work, a total of 64 isolates from 259 pork samples sold in 11 supermarket chains were identified and characterized by comparative whole-genome analysis. All isolates were delineated into eight clonal complexes (CCs), namely CC2, CC8, CC9, CC11, CC155, CC121, CC204, and CC619, spanning two lineages (I and II) and carrying 3-5 antibiotic-resistant genes ( , , , , and ). It is noted that pathogenicity island (LIPI)-1, LIPI-3, and LIPI-4 were distributed in all ST619 isolates from two supermarket chains that were closely related with clinical isolates (