Antimicrobial activity of sodium carboxylates against arcobacter sp. y campylobacter Sp.

Abstract

Arcobacter and Campylobacter genres are pathogenic microorganisms associated with gastrointestinal diseases and their main transmission route is through food and water. Both genres have been strongly associated to poultry, these animals have been signed as reservoirs and contamination sources. Due to this characteristic, industries associated to poultry production had to establish control measures for these bacteria, being hygiene and disinfection one of the most important ones at processing plant level. The use of chemical agents for the control of pathogenic and spoilage microorganisms is one of the most used strategies in food industry, nevertheless, the inadequate use of these substances and the transmission of resistance genes between strains has motivated an increase in the appearance of resistant microorganisms. This has led to the search of new chemical agents that accomplish with the characteristics requested by food industry, including to be non-toxic for consumers, food compatible and active at concentrations similar to routinely used. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the antimicrobial activity of eight different sodium carboxylates against different Arcobacter and Campylobacter strains. Growth of these bacteria was determined at different concentrations of the salts. For Arcobacter, the inhibitory effect of the corresponding sodium salts was as follows: butanoate >gallate – 4-bromobenzoate - decanoate>benzoate>octanoate>caffeate> ascorbate; whereas for Campylobacter was: gallate – 4-bromobenzoate >decanoate – octanoate – butanoate – benzoate >caffeate> ascorbate. Sodium gallate and sodium 4-bromobenzoate were the two salts that presented inhibitory effect at lower concentrations for both bacteria (MIC = 31 µg/mL), butanoate presented a MIC ever lower but only against Arcobacter strains (< 8µg/mL).