Abstract
Foodborne pathogens have the main concern in public health and food safety. Bacillus cereus food poisoning is one of the most important foodborne pathogens worldwide. In the present study, a total of 200 random beef product samples were collected from different supermarkets located at Menofia and Cairo governorates were examined for the presence of Bacillus cereus. In addition, the presence of some virulence encoding genes was evaluated using Multiplex PCR. Finally, the antibiogram testing was conveyed to illustrate the resistance pattern of the confirmed Bacillus cereus. The data showed that Bacillus cereus was recovered from 22.5%, 30%, 25%, 37.5% and 15% of the minced meat, burger, sausage, kofta, and luncheon respectively. Among the 20 examined isolates 18/20 (90%) were harbor hblC enterotoxin encoding gene compared with 20/20 (100) were have cytK enterotoxin encoding gene. The isolated strains of Bacillus cereus were resistant to penicillin G and sensitive to oxacillin, clindamycin, vancomycin, erythromycin, gentamicin, ciprofloxacin, and ceftriaxone. In all, the obtained data showed the importance of emerging B. cereus in disease control and prevention programs, and in regular clinical and food quality control laboratories in Egypt.

Key words: Bacillus cereus, Beef products, Multiplex PCR, Virulence genes, Antimicrobial susceptibility