Vol. 11, Special Issue 7 (2022)

Author(s):
Sonali Thakur, MN Brahmbhatt, JB Nayak, BB Bhanderi, ZB Pargi, Urvish Mistry and Karishma Chauhan

Abstract:
Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is an important foodborne pathogen which can contaminate various food products and cause food poisoning due to the ingestion of preformed Staphylococcal Enterotoxins. Various molecular based approaches like Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) have been used to identify S. aureus, but as it needs expensive equipment, it is not suitable for routine testing. To overcome such limitation, several nucleic acid amplification methods like Loop Mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP) have been developed which is conducted under isothermal conditions, findings can be visually interpreted and there is no need of expensive equipment so, it is well suited for adoption as a field level diagnostic and poorly equipped laboratories. The present study demonstrated the comparison of PCR with LAMP for detection of S. aureus in chevon. On screening the 150 samples (raw chevon), 26 samples (17.33%) were positive for S. aureus by conventional methods. All the S. aureus isolates were then subjected to antibiotic susceptibility test using 12 different antibiotics, which revealed maximum resistance towards penicillin (88.46%) and 100% susceptibility to ceftriaxone, ciprofloxacin and vancomycin. By PCR and LAMP, out of 26, 23 and 24 isolates were confirmed as S. aureus respectively. The specificity of both the methods was similar which was 100%, but the sensitivity of LAMP was found to be 10 times more than that of PCR. Thus, LAMP assay is a convenient testing method for improving food sanitation, maintaining food safety as well as developing international trade.