Prevalence and Survival of Species in Milk and Dairy Products in Egypt.

is a nosocomial, multidrug-resistant pathogen that causes significant economic losses in milk production and deterioration of dairy product quality. This study investigates the prevalence and the survival of under different food preservation conditions. A total of 240 samples, including farm-sourced milk, dairy shop purchased milk, Kareish cheese, Domiati cheese, ice cream, yoghurt, cooking butter, and unpasteurized cream were collected from various locations in Beni-Suef Governorate, Egypt. Thirty samples of each product were analyzed by standard biochemical tests for the presence of spp., which was isolated from 36% (87/240) of the examined samples. The highest prevalence was observed in ice cream (80%), followed by unpasteurized cream (67%), whereas the lowest incidence was in Domiati cheese (3.3%). , identified by PCR, was found only in unpasteurized cream (13%), cooking butter (10%), ice cream (6.7%), and dairy shop milk (3.3%). We also studied the viability of in laboratory manufactured cream, butter, and cheese under different preservation conditions. was able to survive for 30, 30, 28, 30, and 8 d in the inoculated cream, butter 0% salt, butter 3% salt, cheese 0% salt, and cheese 6% salt, respectively. Thus, was able to survive more than predicted in all products in this study. This suggests that strains of may develop adaptive strategies that enable survival under different food preservation conditions, which contradicts previous knowledge about the sensitivity of this microbe to environmental stress conditions. Our overall aim was to draw attention to the prevalence and future potential for increased public health significance of spp.