PERSISTENCE OF L. MONOCYTOGENES VERSUS ADHERENCE ON SOLID SURFACE

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Listeria monocytogenes </span></em><span style="line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">is an important food-borne pathogen that frequently persists in food-processing environments despite rigorous sanitation procedures. Specific phenotypes that have been linked to persistence have been previously investigated but no clear association has been demonstrated. In this study we characterised four persistent </span><em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">L. monocytogenes </em><span style="line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">strains isolated from food factories in Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark and Ireland in comparison with four non-persistent counterparts. The </span><em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">L. monocytogenes </em>isolates were analysed for <span style="line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">the ability to form biofilm during exponential/stationary growth phase at different temperature at low nutrition stress and adhesion to polystyrene at high-salinity conditions. Persistent and non-persistent strains did not significantly differ in the ability to form biofilm or to adhere to polystyrene microtitre plate.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="color: #111111; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal;"><br /><strong>doi:10.5219/135</strong></span></span></span></span></p>