The occurrence of Listeria monocytogenes in home-made dairy products

The occurrence of Listeria monocytogenes in home-made dairy products The st udy involved the examination of 112 samples of raw and sour milk, sour crea m, and soft, cooked and hard cheeses for evidence of contamination with Lis teria monocytogenes. Enrichment and cultural methods included pre-enrichmen t UVM1 broth, post-enrichment in UVM2 broth and selective Listeria Palcam a gar, The frequency of the isolation of Listeria spp was 20.53%. Listeria mo nocytogenes was detected in 13.39% of samples. The number of isolations of L. innocua, L. murrayi and L. seeligeri was 4.46%, 0.89% and 1.78%, respect ively. The frequency distribution of the various species was Listeria monoc ytogenes (65.22%), L. innocua (21.74%), L. murrayi (4.35%) and L. seeliger (8.69%). The prevalence of infection detected in these samples indicated th e need to include Listeria spp and Listeria monocytogenes in veterinary hyg iene surveillance programmes, because of their importance for human health. The results also indicate the mandatory requirement for the pasteurization of milk as a standard procedure in the production of domestic milk product s.