Salted duck eggs: the source for pathogens and antibiotic resistant bacteria

Salted duck eggs as a convenient food are very popular in China and Southeast Asia. Generally, they are produced by traditional curing methods. Here we used traditional methods to profile the bacterial community of salted duck eggs purchased from markets to systematically investigate their microbiological safety. 77 bacteria belonging to 14 genera were isolated. Bacillus related to flavor formation of salted duck eggs were the dominant genus. However, there existed some clinical pathogens which can cause food poisoning, such as Klebsiella pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus, and Aeromonas hydrophila. Moreover, PCA analysis showed that the composition of bacteria was related to the source and storage time rather than sampling sites. Besides, bacteria in the shell, intima and egg white of salted duck eggs were cross-linked. In addition, antimicrobial susceptibility testing indicated that resistant bacteria reached to 47.9%. And there was also no significant difference in bacterial resistance with sampling sites. Consequently, it’s necessary to strengthen the food quality of salted duck eggs and improve personal dietary habit.