Bruce E. Schmidt

Control of Listeria spp. by competitive-exclusion bacteria in floor drains of a poultry processing plant

ABSTRACT In previous studies workers determined that two lactic acid bacterium isolates, Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis C-1-92 and Enterococcus durans 152 (competitive-exclusion bacteria [CE]), which were originally obtained from biofilms in floor drains, are bactericidal to Listeria monocytogenes or inhibit the growth of L. monocytogenes both in vitro and in biofilms at 4 to 37°C. We evaluated the efficacy of these isolates for reducing Listeria spp. contamination of floor drains of a plant in which fresh poultry is processed. Baseline assays revealed that the mean numbers of Listeria sp. cells in floor drains sampled on six different dates (at approximately biweekly intervals) were 7.5 log10 CFU/100 cm2 for drain 8, 4.9 log10 CFU/100 cm2 for drain 3, 4.4 log10 CFU/100 cm2 for drain 2, 4.1 log10 CFU/100 cm2 for drain 4, 3.7 log10 CFU/100 cm2 for drain 1, and 3.6 log10 CFU/100 cm2 for drain 6. The drains were then treated with 107 CE/ml in an enzyme-foam-based cleaning agent four times in 1 week and twice a week for the following 3 weeks. In samples collected 1 week after CE treatments were applied Listeria sp. cells were not detectable (samples were negative as determined by selective enrichment culture) for drains 4 and 6 (reductions of 4.1 and 3.6 log10 CFU/100 cm2, respectively), and the mean numbers of Listeria sp. cells were 3.7 log10 CFU/100 cm2 for drain 8 (a reduction of 3.8 log10 CFU/100 cm2), <1.7 log10 CFU/100 cm2 for drain 1 (detectable only by selective enrichment culture; a reduction of 3.3 log10 CFU/100 cm2), and 2.6 log10 CFU/100 cm2 for drain 3 (a reduction of 2.3 log10 CFU/100 cm2). However, the aerobic plate counts for samples collected from floor drains before, during, and after CE treatment remained approximately the same. The results indicate that application of the two CE can greatly reduce the number of Listeria sp. cells in floor drains at 3 to 26°C in a facility in which fresh poultry is processed.