Phylogenetic Diversity of Aeromonas from “Alheira”, a Traditional Portuguese Meat Product

“Alheira” is a traditional smoked meat sausage produced in the north of Portugal, representing an important economic resource for the region. Eventually, this meat product has been subjected to research studies with the aim to detect the presence of common foodborne pathogens but, to our knowledge, isolation of emerging foodborne Aeromonas from “alheira” has never been previously described. Present work attempts to evaluate the Aeromonas species diversity of 84 isolates of Aeromonas spp. collected from 32 “alheira” samples. All presumptive Aeromonas isolates were subjected to genotyping by ERIC-PCR analysis. The isolates presenting a different pattern were subjected to gyrB gene sequencing for species classification and the species A. hydrophila, A. salmonicida, A. caviae, A. media and A. allosaccharophila were identified. The Aeromonas species diversity found has not been previously described from any other meat product evaluated in previous studies. It is worth of note the presence of A. hydrophila and A. caviae among the species isolated because these species are associated with illness in man, particularly to gastroenteritis.This work was supported by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (PhD grants SFRH/BD/25415/2005) and by Grants IMIDTA/2007/68, IMIDTA/2008/104, IMIDTP/2009/64 from IMPIVA, Generalitat Valenciana, Spain