Enterococcus species with lipolytic and proteolytic properties can pass directly from animal faeces or indirectly from contaminated water, equipment or storage tanks into milk. The present study focused on isolation and identification of Enterococcus species and to determine the microbiological characteristics of traditionally produced civil cheese. TMAB, Coliform, Enterococus and yeast-mold counts of 40 civil cheese samples made by traditional method were determined. In addition, Enterococus species was isolated and identified with Vitek2 compact system. total mesophilic aerobic bacteria counts were 8.22 log cfu/g; the number of the number of Enterococci were 5.77 log cfu/g, Coliform bacteria count were of 4.18 log cfu/ g and the number of yeast and mould were 6.35 log cfu/g. It was determined that the isolated 75 Enterococcus strains consisted of 33 Enterococcus faecalis, 23 Enterococcus durans, 12 Enterococcus faecium and 6 Enterococcus gallinarum and 1 Enterococcus avium. As a result, because of the production of fresh civil cheese under unhygienic conditions, its microbiological quality is low. This situation poses a potential health hazard to consumers.

In this study, it was aimed to detect the antimicrobial activity of 312 Enterococcus species against Listeria monocytogenes. Antimicrobial activity was detected by agar spot and well diffusion assay. A total of 201 enterococcal strains inhibited the growth of L. monocytogenes strains based on the agar spot test. Only 44 strains showed antimicrobial activity against L. monocytogenes strains using agar well diffusion assay. Of the 44 enterococcal strains screened, 6 E. faecium (2.99%) strains had a high antimicrobial effect against indicator L. monocytogenes strains. The antilisterial activity of 6 E. faecium strains had lost after treatment of proteinase K, trypsin and pepsin. The antimicrobial compounds of these strains could be a protein or peptides nature. E. faecium strains were more active against L. monocytogenes than E. faecalis strains.

It is commonly well-known that biofilms are the predominant mode of bacterial growth, reflected in the clinic observations, where approximately 80% of all bacterial infections are related to biofilms. Bacteria in biofilms are well protected against environmental stresses, antibiotics, disinfectants and the host’s immune system and are usually extremely difficult to eradicate. Due to common problems caused by biofilms, alternative anti-biofilm strategies must be developed. Enterococcus strains are able to form complex surface-associated communities (biofilms), which contribute to its resistance and persistence in both host and non-host environments, and are especially important in food processing and clinical environments. Enterococcus biofilms showed increased antimicrobial resistance to the most of antibiotics as compared to the planktonic bacteria, which make them difficult to combat. There is an increasing evidence that biofilms are often associated with infectious diseases. Novel anti-biofilm strategies must be designed to include natural bio products instead of common antibiotics. Mushrooms are a nutritionally functional foods and a source of pharmaceuticals having functions such as antitumor, immunomodulating, antioxidant, cardiovascular, anti-hypercholesterolemia, antiviral, antibacterial, anti-parasitic, antifungal, detoxification, hepatoprotective, and antidiabetic. In addition, they have a notable activity against biofilms. In this study, the antimicrobial and anti-biofilm activities of some medicinal and edible mushrooms, namely Morchella angusticeps Peck, Ganoderma lucidum (Curtis) P. Karst., Cerioporus squamosus (Huds.) Quél., Trametes versicolor (L.) Lloyd and Lentinula edodes (Berk.) Singer were screened against multi drug resistant Enterococcus strains. As a result, it was observed that these mushrooms have notable potency to develop alternative medicines to struggle infectious diseases and biofilms.