The contamination of chilled meat with various microbes is one of the major causes of cost-effective problems in meat production and has an impact on public health worldwide (Wickramasinghe et al. 2019). Despite the use of modern methods of meat preservation, microbial contamination remains a major threat. Psychrotrophic Pseudomonas spp. are considered the main bacteria that lead to putrefaction of ice-cold meat under aerobic conditions. The genus Pseudomonas is one of the most polluting microbes and is characterized by its great ability to withstand difficult environmental conditions, which leads to the prevention of the growth of other microorganisms. To diminish contamination of meat, proper detection and treatment of various Pseudomonas spp. are critical. Therefore, this study concentrated on an accurate method of identification and differentiation of Pseudomonas spp. and evaluated their degrees of resistance and susceptibility to various antibiotics commonly used for treatment.
Based on our results, the mean Pseudomonas counts (CFU/g) were 10.1 x 103 ± 1.45 x103, 7.4 x 103 ± 0.89 x 103, 6.5 x 103 ± 6.43 x103 and 4.3 x 103 ± 7.56 x103 for the isolates recovered from the breast, thigh, burger, and nuggets, respectively. Comparable findings were recorded by Hassan et al. (2020), who found that the mean Pseudomonas counts recovered from various chicken meat products (chilled breast, thigh, nuggets and burger) varied from 3.51×103± 0.76×103 to 8.44×103± 1.85×103. Other parallel records detected by Morshdy et al. (2018) and Abd El-Aziz (2015) were 3.6×103 and 2.6×104, respectively. Although the research performed by Hinton et al. (2007) indicated that psychrotrophic bacteria were not recovered from carcasses washed with chlorinated water, different species of Pseudomonas were the most predominant psychrotrophs recovered from all carcasses when stored in refrigerators for two weeks. Several investigations have revealed that the initial Pseudomonas count is directly associated with the period of storing meat in the refrigerator, and meat spoilage occurs when the number of Pseudomonas ranges from 107 to 108 (Hassan et al. 2020).
In the current investigation, we identified 69 Pseudomonas spp. using biochemical analysis confirmed by proteomics methods. The identified isolates were represented as P. lundensis (18), P. fragi (16), P. oryzihabitans (13), P. stutzeri (10), P. fluorescens (5), P. putida (4), and P. aeruginosa (3). Chicken meat burgers (25/69) and nuggets (25/69) were the most contaminated chicken meat products of Pseudomonas species, which might be a result of mismanagement, extreme usage, and unsuccessful hygienic practices throughout processing and packing. Parallel findings were obtained by Hassan et al. (2020), who identified 166 isolates of Pseudomonas species, with a high prevalence of P. fluorescens followed by P. alcaligenes, P. stutzeri, P. proteolytica, and P. fragi, while low incidence rates were recorded for P. aeruginosa, P. stutzeri, and P. acidovorans. In another study, Arnaut-Rollier et al. (1999) detected 3 species of Pseudomonas (P. fragi, P. lundensis, P. fluorescens biovars) from both fresh and refrigerated chicken skin.
In addition, 11 strains of Pseudomonas species recovered from cooked chicken burgers were identified by Franzetti and Scarpellini (2007) as 8 strains of P. fragi, followed by 2 P. chicorii and 1 P. fluorescens. In contrast, P. aeruginosa was not detected in 100 chicken meat specimens (Iroha et al. 2011). In another study conducted by Caldera et al. (2016), the deterioration of food was commonly associated with P. aeruginosa, P. fragi, P. lundensis and P. fluorescens (Caldera et al. 2016). Moreover, Bellés et al. (2017) and Wang et al. (2017) clarified that the capability of these microorganisms to live at low temperatures may lead to trouble throughout the storage of foodstuffs. The existence of Pseudomonas spp. in various food samples is of high importance because this type of bacteria has a bad impact on human health and is considered a sign of food quality (Yagoub 2009).
Because phenotypic-based detection of various foodborne pathogens is difficult and takes a long time to be carried out, Microflex LT was meaningfully applied in our study for the initial detection and classification of numerous bacteria from chicken meat samples, as it is an easy, quick, specific, and inexpensive detection technique compared to other approaches (Singhal et al. 2015; van Belkum et al. 2017; Elbehiry et al. 2019). In recent times, Microflex LT has been discovered to be an imperative tool for the powerful recognition of microbial intimidations that may pollute both water and foodstuffs (Singhal et al. 2015; Elbehiry et al. 2019).
In the present investigation, the percentage of mass spectral identification of Pseudomonas strains was 100% for all 7 species of Pseudomonas. The interpreted results confirmed that all spectral profiles produced by Microflex LT IVD Compass Software were suitable to distinguish between Pseudomonads at the species level. The accurate identification observed in our study may be a result of the restructured database (Elbehiry et al. 2019). Comparable findings were noted by Böhme et al. (2011), who applied Microflex LT effectively in the exact identification of gram-negative bacteria (e.g., Pseudomonas and Enterobacter) of different species recovered from seafood. Consequently, Microflex LT has been demonstrated to be an authoritative instrument for microbial identification. Höll et al. (2016) also identified several microorganisms isolated from packaged poultry meat using Microflex LT, and they found that Pseudomonas spp. is one of the most common bacteria found after 7 days of storage at 4°C and 10°C.
In addition, principal component analysis (PCA) generated by the Microflex LT device magnificently divided P. lundensis, P. fragi, P. oryzihabitans, P. stutzeri, P. fluorescens, P. putida, and P. aeruginosa strains into different groups. Han (2010) and Elbehiry et al. (2019) indicated that PCA is usually applied as a mathematical tool to extract and demonstrate the modification in the spectral profiles within the database.
The spread of antimicrobial resistance amongst the genus Pseudomonas was also examined in the current study. Of late, antimicrobial resistance represents one of the common public health problems, as multidrug-resistant bacteria related to animals may be virulent and transferred simply to human beings through food chains and comprehensively dispersed through animal wastes to the environment (Manyi-Loh et al. 2018). Antimicrobial resistance is problematic and multifaceted and occurs as a consequence of the unreasonable use of antibiotics under poor hygienic measures (Osman et al. 2019).
In the present investigation, the AST GN83 card was applied to display the resistance and susceptibility of 69 Pseudomonas species recovered from various chicken meat samples against several antibiotics frequently utilized for the treatment of gram-negative pathogens. Based on our results, the majority of Pseudomonas isolates exhibited higher degrees of susceptibility to cefotaxime (100%), ceftazidime (98.55%), cefepime (94.2%), gentamycin (86.96%), and amikacin (82.16%). These findings were similar to those obtained by CLSI (2015). It was also observed that the majority of the Pseudomonas isolates were highly sensitive to meropenem (70%). Parallel results were achieved in previous studies carried out in Turkey by Shenoy et al. (2002) and Deniz Yilmaz et al. (2016) and in Kenya by Mwinyikombo (2018), who revealed that Pseudomonas isolates demonstrated higher degrees of susceptibility to both meropenem and imipenem. Nonetheless, other studies performed in India by Sivanmaliappan & Sevanan (2011) illustrated a higher degree of resistance to imipenem (66.6%), a finding that could be explained by the misuse of broad-spectrum antibiotics such as carbapenems.
The highest degree of resistance was detected against various classes of antibiotics, such as nitrofurantoin (81.16%), followed by beta-lactam [ampicillin (71%) and aztreonam (55%)], beta-lactam/beta-lactamase inhibitor [ampicillin/sulbactam (71%)], second-generation cephalosporins [cefuroxime (65.22%)], third-generation cephalosporins [ceftriaxone (65.22%)], ciprofloxacin (49.28%) and carbapenem [meropenem (43.48%)]. Similar findings regarding nitrofurantoin were obtained by Cunha et al. (2011) and Osei Sekyere et al. (2018), who indicated that various bacteria (e.g., Pseudomonas, Salmonella, Proteus) isolated from patients suffering from urinary tract infections are highly resistant to nitrofurantoin. It can be seen from our study that the majority of Pseudomonas isolates were found to directly develop resistance against various types of antibiotics. Among the Pseudomonas spp. detected in the present study, P. lundensis, P. fragi, P. oryzihabitans, P. stutzeri and P. aeruginosa can be proposed as reservoirs of antibiotic resistance.
The present study demonstrates the high incidence rates of P. lundensis, P. fragi and P. oryzihabitans among different species of Pseudomonas isolated from chicken meat samples. Throughout this investigation, we established that Microflex LT applied for the detection of Pseudomonas species is an authoritative, inexpensive, and truthful technique and was able to discriminate different species of Pseudomonas using PCA generated by the Microflex LT device. Future investigations will be required to determine the useful application of this technique for the proper recognition and discrepancies of Pseudomonas spp. in food samples. Furthermore, our results demonstrated that the various species of Pseudomonas had established multidrug resistance. Accordingly, the evolution of resistance might be foreseeable; hence, the number of effective antimicrobial drugs is decreasing. Since Pseudomonas can threaten public health, the broadcast of resistance may perhaps have negative influences on individuals.