The bacterial diversity of raw Moroccon camel milk.

Dromedary camel milk is generally considered a valuable and marketable commodity but its production suffers from poor hygienic conditions that result in low microbiological quality and the presence of various pathogens. The objective of the present study was to provide a detailed report of the bacterial species level composition of Moroccan raw camel milk samples that can serve as a starting point for the selection of starter cultures to facilitate a change in manufacturing practices to an improved and safer production system. The composition of the bacterial community in four freshly collected raw camel milk samples was analyzed by performing a large-scale isolation campaign combined with 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing.

Enterococcus bulliens sp. nov., a novel lactic acid bacterium isolated from camel milk.

Four lactic acid bacteria isolates obtained from fresh dromedary camel milk produced in Dakhla, a city in southern Morocco, were characterised in order to determine their taxonomic position. The four isolates had highly similar MALDI-TOF MS and RAPD fingerprints and identical 16S rRNA gene sequences. Comparative sequence analysis revealed that the 16S rRNA gene sequence of the four isolates was most similar to that of Enterococcus sulfureus ATCC 49903(T) and Enterococcus italicus DSM 15952(T) (99.

Streptococcus tangierensis sp. nov. and Streptococcus cameli sp. nov., two novel Streptococcus species isolated from raw camel milk in Morocco.

Biochemical and molecular genetic studies were performed on two unidentified Gram-stain positive, catalase and oxidase negative, non-hemolytic Streptococcus-like organisms recovered from raw camel milk in Morocco. Phenotypic characterization and comparative 16S rRNA gene sequencing demonstrated that the two strains were highly different from each other and that they did not correspond to any recognized species of the genus Streptococcus. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed the unidentified organisms each formed a hitherto unknown sub-line within the genus Streptococcus, displaying a close affinity with Streptococcus moroccensis, Streptococcus minor and Streptococcus ovis.

Streptococcus moroccensis sp. nov. and Streptococcus rifensis sp. nov., isolated from raw camel milk.

Two catalase- and oxidase-negative Streptococcus-like strains, LMG 27682(T) and LMG 27684(T), were isolated from raw camel milk in Morocco. Comparative 16S rRNA gene sequencing assigned these bacteria to the genus Streptococcus with Streptococcus rupicaprae 2777-2-07(T) as their closest phylogenetic neighbour (95.9% and 95.