Prevalence and antimicrobial susceptibility of Arcobacter species in cow milk, water buffalo milk and fresh village cheese

• This study proved that milk and cheese are reservoirs for Arcobacters.
• This is the first study to identify the presence of A. halophilus in cow milk.
• A. cibarius, A. cloacae and A. nitrofigilis were found firstly in milk and cheese.
• Arcobacters were found to be resistant to cefoperazone, cloxacillin and penicillin G.

In this study, the presence of Arcobacter spp. was examined in cow milk (n = 50), water buffalo (WB) milk (n = 50) and fresh village cheese (n = 50) samples. The 16S rDNA-RFLP method was used for the identification of Arcobacter spp. The disc diffusion method was used to investigate the susceptibility of all strains identified to 18 different antimicrobial substances. The most commonly isolated Arcobacter species were found to be Arcobacter butzleri (38.89%), Arcobacter cryaerophilus (22.23%) and Arcobacter skirrowii (11.12%) in cow milk; A. cryaerophilus (33.33%), Arcobacter cibarius (20.83%) and A. butzleri (12.50%) in WB milk; and A. skirrowii (28.57%), A. butzleri (21.43%) and A. cryaerophilus (14.29%) in fresh village cheese. This is the first study to identify the presence of Arcobacter nitrofigilis, Arcobacter cloacae, Arcobacter halophilus, Arcobacter bivalviorum and A. cibarius species in analyzed samples. It was found that all of the A. cryaerophilus (n:16) isolates were resistant to cefoperazone, cloxacillin and penicillin G; all of the A. skirrowii (n:12) and A. butzleri (n:10) isolates were resistant to cefoperazone, tetracycline, ampicillin, erythromycin, cloxacillin and penicillin G. It was concluded that cow milk, WB milk and fresh village cheese samples are an important source of Arcobacter species and pose a risk to public health.