Description
Formerly known as Enterobacter sakazakii, in 2008 these motile Gram-negative bacteria of the family of Enterobacteriaceae were reclassified as a new a genus of Cronobacter. Albeit that infections in adults are generally non-life threatening and associated with underlying health problems, clinical symptoms of infections in infants include necrotizing enterocolitis, neonatal bacteremia and meningitis, with high fatality rates in neonates and infants and ongoing disablement of survivors. Chronobacter is well known for its high resistance to extreme dryness and osmotic stress. This tolerance to desiccation allows for its survival in dry environments such as powdered food products, including infant formula and milk powder. These powders have been suggested to be responsible for 50-80% of all Cronobacter infections, which is of major concern due to undeveloped immune systems as well as competing intestinal flora in infants.
Traditional microbiological detection and confirmation methods are long established and well developed but are laborious and typically require 4-5 days in order to obtain results. This qPCR Detection Kit provides a fast, sensitive and reliable method for the detection of Chronobacter based on qPCR using specific FAM-labeled probes, requiring less than 2 days. This immense time reduction allows taking appropriate action, if needed, much sooner.
This kit is compatible with instruments equipped with FAM and ROX channels. The detection limit is approximately 500fg of Cronobacter DNA allowing the detection of, after enrichment, as little as 1-10 cells per 25g of diluted food or feed samples, with a specificity of 100%.