GROWTH/ NO GROWTH MODELS OF DIFFERENT STRESS ADAPTED LISTERIA MONOCYTOGENES STRAINS

摘要

Growth/No Growth models are statistical models used to quantify the combined effect of various growth inhibitors and determine the environmental conditions in which a pathogen is unable to grow. One factor affecting the development of G/NG models is the microbial intraspecies strain variability, as different strains often behave differently when one or more environmental conditions change. This obstacle is overcome by a pre-screening of the strains in order for the most resistant strain to be used. In this experiment, a pre-screening of different Listeria monocytogenes strains revealed that there were different strains exhibiting resistance to different stressing environmental conditions, thus making it not feasible to classify only one as the most resistant. Instead, the produced G/NG model was based on growth data of all 10 tested strains, resulting in a composite model which successfully predicted full growth of L. monocytogenes. Additionally, in comparison to individual strain generated models, the composite model safely predicted bacterial growth in environmental conditions where individual models failed to.