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Article Type

Article

Abstract

Background: Diarrhea is a serious global public health issue, especially in developing nations. The two categories most susceptible to infection are the elderly and children. L. monocytogenes is recognized as a causal agent of diarrhoea among the several bacterial pathogens linked to gastrointestinal illnesses. The current work was designed to investigate Listeria spp in diarrheal human stool samples in Baghdad City, Iraq.

Methods: One hundred stool samples from diarrheal patients were collected from private clinics in rural and urban areas. Listeria spp was identified by conventional culture methods using selective media, biochemical and CAMP tests, the Vitek 2compact system, and then confirmed molecularly using the iap gene. The disc diffusion method was used to identify the antimicrobial susceptibility profile, and the prfA, actA, and hylA virulence genes were detected by PCR assay.

Results: Only L. monocytogenes isolates 2 (2%) were isolated from diarrheal humans, which were identified in patients aged from six months to five years at 4.44%, from males at 6.25%, and in rural areas at 3.17%, the two cases were contact with cows in farms. The isolates were absolute resistance to erythromycin and ampicillin, while being susceptible to chloramphenicol, cotrimoxazole(sulfamethoxazole/Trimethoprim), tetracycline, ciprofloxacin, and vancomycin, with a MAR index of 0.25. In addition, PCR analysis revealed that the isolates harbored the prfA, actA, and hylA virulence genes, confirming these pathogenic and virulent strains. Sequencing and phylogenetic tree analyses of the iap genes. The findings demonstrated that isolates of L. monocytogenes shared genetic homology with other strains submitted to the GenBank database from various sources.

Conclusion: The present study shows that L. monocytogenes is a cause of diarrhea and gastroenteritis, especially in children under five years old. The detection of highly virulent and resistant bacteria threatens the effectiveness of treatment.

Keywords

Listeria, Diarrhea, Antimicrobial, Human, Contact, Animals

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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