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In light of the significant public health and food safety implications associated with Clostridium perfringens, this study aimed to isolate and characterize C. perfringens in samples obtained from broiler chicken retail points in Meghalaya, northeastern India. A total of 280 samples comprising meat, intestinal contents, water, and hand swabs were processed to detect contamination by C. perfringens. The isolates were subjected to toxinotyping, antimicrobial susceptibility testing, and biofilm-forming ability test. The overall occurrence of C. perfringens was 22.5% (17.74–27.85, 95% CI) with the highest recovery from intestine samples (31%; 22.13–41.03, 95% CI), followed by meat (23%, 15.17–32.49, 95% CI) and water samples (18%, 8.58–31.44, 95% CI). Type A was the predominant toxinotype (71.43%, 58.65–82.11, 95% CI), followed by Type A with beta2 toxin (17.46%, 9.05–29.10, 95% CI), Type C (7.94%, 2.63–17.56, 95% CI), and Type C with beta2 toxin (3.17%, 0.39–11.0, 95% CI). Nearly all (95.24%) isolates were multidrug resistant and 68.25% were biofilm formers. The predominance of multidrug-resistant and virulent Type A and Type C C. perfringens in retail broiler meat and intestines in the tribal-dominated northeastern region of India is of great concern from food safety and public health perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brucella spp. and Listeria monocytogenes are recognised as important food safety and public health concerns. We provide a unique single-tube real-time platform for simultaneous yet differential detection of Brucella spp. and L. monocytogenes in milk using melt curve analysis. Melting curve analysis revealed two different peaks at melting temperatures of 79.91 ± 0.56 °C and 87.51 ± 0.26 °C for L. monocytogenes and Brucella spp., respectively. The technique detected only L. monocytogenes and Brucella spp., with no different melt curves for other bacterial pathogens. The limit of detection (LoD) in spiked raw milk demonstrated that the duplex test detects the target pathogens up to 10 cfu mL−1 milk. The findings show that the newly proposed method is easy-to-use, sensitive, specific, and a viable diagnostic tool for testing a wide range of foods that are concomitantly contaminated with L. monocytogenes and Brucella spp. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]