Isolation of airborne Listeria spp in meat processing industry

2 Irena Zdovc, PhD, assistant professor, University of Ljubljana, Veterinary Faculty, Institute for Microbiology and Parasitology, Gerbičeva 60, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia; Center of Excellence NAMASTE, Jamova 39, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia Summary Listeria monocytogenes and other Listeria species are microorganisms which can signi#cantly a$ect the health of consumers transferring by meat and meat products. Special interest was emphasized due to the possibility of aerogene contamination of meat and products with microorganisms forming bioaerosol. In this paper the presence of Listeria monocytogenes and Listeria spp and in bioaerosol in air of meat processing plants and the importance of selecting the methods of air sampling as impaction or cyclone method were studied. In experiment the cyclone method shows higher sensitivity for the detection of sampling L. monocytogenes and other Listeria spp in bioaerosols of the air in meat industry. With cyclone bioaerosol sampling method, we found the presence of Listeria spp in 41% of the sample, of which 24% of the sample con#rmed on the presence of L. monocytogenes. The results show a signi#cant potential for aerogene contamination of meat and meat products with L. monocytogenes via bioaerosol in the meat industry. Cyclonic method indicated more reliable air sampling in detecting the presence of L monocytogenes in bioaerosols compared with the impact method.