A 205 samples representing eight different infant foods with various based materials were collected and analyzed for their microbiological properties. The contamination rate by aerobic spore formers was achieved 100% in milk based infant food with fruit, vegetables, honey, rice and infant milk powder. While, it was detected in 95, 60 and 65% of the infant food with wheat milk based, ready to use (infant food with fruit) and ready to use (infant food with vegetables), respectively. Biochemical Identification and API 50 CHB used to identify the obtained isolates and revealed that B. subtilis was the most frequently occurring Bacillus spp. Followed by B. licheniformis and B. circulans. While B. cereus was detected in 10.20% of the total isolates. Moreover, B. cereus was confirmed in 21.2% of milk based fruit, vegetables (15.7%), honey (17.2%), rice (14.1%) and wheat (12%) and vanished in the infant milk powder samples. Although, B. cereus noted in lower percentage but this strain is considered as the more harmful one in lower numbers. For that, the following part is focused on B. cereus. Forty five isolates obtained from B. Cereus contaminating samples were screened for prevalence of 3 important virulent enterotoxigenic genes using PCR technique. The CYTK gene had the highest presence which detected in 43 isolates (95.5%), followed by NHEC gene detected in 32 isolates. However, the HBLA gene was detected in just 5 isolates. So, many processes should be applied for controlling of pathogens to preserve infant lives.
Keywords: Bacillus spp.; Enterotoxigenic genes; Infant foods; Molecular detection.