2017 Volume 23 Issue 5 Pages 679-688
The prevalence of Staphylococcus aureus in dairy products in North Africa is high. Biopreservation promises to be one of the most sustainable strategies for reducing the risk of this pathogen. In this perspective, we screened local raw milk samples for LAB strains exhibiting anti-pathogenic activity against S. aureus and 11 other notorious food-borne pathogens. From the initial 120 LAB isolates, we selected the best-performing strains based on the breadth of their anti-pathogenic activity spectra. Lactobacillus paracasei subsp. paracasei KU517839 showed the best antibiosis against S. aureus with inhibition zones of (3.53 ± 0.05 cm) and the largest antibacterial activity spectrum as it inhibited all the other 11 pathogenic strains. Furthermore, a reduction of 5 log in S. aureus cell number was registered in fermented milk co-cultures and it significantly inhibited its growth in fresh cheese (8 log reduction; p < 0.001) even after 21 days of storage at 4°C.
