Contamination of Cronobacter spp. in Chinese Retail Spices

Crononbacter spp. is an opportunistic foodborne pathogen that causes infections in neonates, infants, and immunocompromised adults. Although the contamination of spices with Cronobacter has been previously reported in some countries, there have been no studies on Cronobacter contamination in China. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the prevalence of Cronobacter spp. in Chinese retail spices. Fifty-six packaged Chinese spices were collected from different markets, and 32 of these were found to be contaminated with Cronobacter. Five species were identified from the 54 isolates of the 32 positive samples: Cronobacter sakazakii (n=35), Cronobacter muytjensii (n=8), Cronobacter malonaticus (n=6), Cronobacter turicensis (n=3), and Cronobacter dublinensis (n=2). Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis demonstrated high genetic diversity, as 53 PFGE profiles were revealed for the 54 isolates. Multilocus sequence typing analysis revealed 46 sequence types, and of these, 26 were newly identified. Most of the isolates were sensitive to antibiotics (n=15), with the exception of cefazolin. This study revealed that the contamination of Chinese retail spices by Cronobacter spp. poses a potential risk to the consumer.