Detection of the hbl complex genes in Bacillus cereus isolated from cow raw milk in northwest of Iran

Bacillus(B) cereus is regarded as a major foodborne pathogen which is widely distributed in the nature. In addition, it plays an important role in the contamination of ready-to-eat and dairy products. B. cereus causes the two different types of food poisoning in human: the diarrheal and the emetic type. The aim of this study is detection of hbl complex genes in B. cereus isolated from cow raw milk in Northwest of Iran. In the present study, the number of the samples collected from cow raw milk were 120. All the isolates already had been identified phenotypically, and they were assessed for molecular confirmation by using the PCR method. B. cereus isolates were determined by detecting the hbl genes complex in the isolates. The result of this study showed that B. cereus were found in the raw milk samples 117 (97.5%) from the 120 samples. The frequency of the hblA, hblC, and hblD genes found in B. cereus isolates were 105 (89.7%), 102 (87.1%), and 102 (87.1%) , respectively. 99 isolates (84.6%) harboured 3 tested genes simultaneously. 12 B. cereus isolates (10.3%) lacked these genes. The results of current study showed that B. cereus isolated from raw milk have high potential in causing food poisoning and therefore the use of the procedures to reduce the bacterial contamination during the processing of dairy product is required.