Bacterial species diversity of traditionally ripened sheep legs from the Faroe Islands (skerpikjøt)

Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskriftTidsskriftartikelForskningfagfællebedømt

  • Christina Charmpi
  • Kristian Key Milan Thamsborg
  • Svein Ole Mikalsen
  • Eyðfinn Magnussen
  • Ana Sosa Fajardo
  • David Van der Veken
  • Leisner, Jørgen
  • Frédéric Leroy

Skerpikjøt is a traditionally ripened sheep leg product from the Faroe Islands, constituting a relatively underexplored microbial ecosystem. The objective of this study is to achieve a deeper understanding of the microbial composition of this artisanal product. Nine ripened hind legs, obtained from three different producers, were assessed regarding their bacterial communities and contents of biogenic amines, including both surface and core samples. Biogenic amine concentrations were generally low, although one sample had a somewhat elevated concentration of cadaverine. Bacterial diversity was investigated by culture-dependent and culture-independent techniques. Gram-positive catalase-positive cocci (GCC) constituted the most abundant group. Within this group, Staphylococcus equorum was the most prevailing species, followed by Kocuria sp., Mammaliicoccus vitulinus, and Staphylococcus saprophyticus. Lactic acid bacteria prevailed in only one sample and were mainly represented by Latilactobacillus curvatus. Enterobacterial communities were characterised by the prevalence of Serratia proteamaculans. Despite the majority of GCC, Clostridium putrefaciens was the most abundant bacterial species in some core samples. Taken together, the culture-dependent and culture-independent identification methods gave complementary results.

OriginalsprogEngelsk
Artikelnummer110023
TidsskriftInternational Journal of Food Microbiology
Vol/bind386
ISSN0168-1605
DOI
StatusUdgivet - 2023

Bibliografisk note

Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Research Council of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (projects SRP7 , IOF342 , and IRP11 ), the Hercules Foundation (project UABR 09/004 ), the Research Foundation-Flanders (grant G021518N ), and the Flanders Innovation and Entrepreneurship Agency (Flanders' FOOD Botulinsafe; grant HBC.2017.0491 ).

Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Research Council of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel ( SRP7 and IOF3017 projects), and in particular the Interdisciplinary Research Program IRP11 ‘Tradition and naturalness of animal products within a societal context of change’, the Research Foundation-Flanders (grant G021518N ), and the Hercules Foundation (projects UABR 09/004 and UAB 13002 ). KT was supported by a Ph.D. grant from Sino-Danish Centre for Education and Research .

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Elsevier B.V.

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