Effect of holder pasteurization and storage of donor human milk on  survival

Human milk, which constitutes the best composed nutrition for infants, is not a sterile biofluid. Besides nutritional and bioactive components, many microorganisms have been found in human milk, including Bacillus cereus. Those pathogenic bacteria can be responsible for causing pneumonia or septicemia in neonates. Although Bacillus cereus infections are not common, they represent one of the increasing factors of a high mortality rate in the preterm infants group. Donor human milk (DHM) may be a significant source of this pathogen.

Materials and Methods

Given the high ability of Bacillus cereus spores to survive under different thermal conditions, we tested the effect of the holder pasteurization and storage points (4 °C and −21 °C) on sporulation and vegetative forms’ survival in inoculated human milk samples by culture method and light microscopy.

Results

Studies confirmed that holder pasteurization is effective against vegetative forms of Bacillus cereus. Additionally, during storage endospores were observed in all analyzed inoculated donor milk samples, both the pasteurized and unpasteurized samples, thus possibly promoting the occurrence of Bacillus cereus in DHM.

Conclusions

Bacillus cereus is considered a contamination in DHM and in the human milk banks’ (HMB) environment. There is a need to further develop methods of identifying, transmitting, and preventing bacteria forming spores, which could be applied in HMB.

eISSN:: 1732-2693
Idioma:: Inglés

Calendario de la edición:: Volume Open
Temas de la revista:: Life Sciences, Molecular Biology, Microbiology and Virology, Medicine, Basic Medical Science, Immunology

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Effect of holder pasteurization and storage of donor human milk on Bacillus cereus survival

Article Category: Original Study

Publicado en línea: 14 mar 2024

Páginas: 13 - 21

Recibido: 18 jul 2023

Aceptado: 20 dic 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ahem-2023-0027

Palabras clavedonor human milk, human milk banks, Bacillus cereus, premature infants

© 2024 Kamila Strom et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Introduction

Materials and Methods

Results

Conclusions

Palabras clave
donor human milk, human milk banks, Bacillus cereus, premature infants