Screening of Streptococcus suis in swine workers of selected states in Peninsular Malaysia

Vet World Vol.17 January-2024 Article-1

Research Article

Veterinary World, 17(1): 1-7

https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2024.1-7

Chee Yien Lee¹, Zunita Zakaria^2,3, Gayathri Thevi Selvarajah^1,4, Farina Mustaffa-Kamal^2,3, Kenny Gah Leong Voon⁵, Michelle Wai Cheng Fong¹, and Peck Toung Ooi¹

1. Department of Veterinary Clinical Studies, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
2. Department of Veterinary Pathology and Microbiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
3. Laboratory of Vaccine and Biomolecules, Institute of Bioscience, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
4. UPM - MAKNA Cancer Research Laboratory, Institute of Bioscience, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
5. Division of Biomedical Science, School of Pharmacy, University of Nottingham, 43500 Semenyih, Selangor, Malaysia.

Background and Aim: Streptococcus suis is a zoonotic pathogen that is highly associated with contact between live pigs and raw pig material. In view of the recent reports of human infections in Malaysia, epidemiological data on the status of S. suis in the human population, especially among people working closely with pigs and/or raw pork, should be provided. The aim of this study was to detect S. suis among individuals working in the swine industry in several major pig production areas in Peninsular Malaysia.

Materials and Methods: Demographic information, exposure determinants, and oral swabs were collected from swine personnel, including farmers, butchers, and veterinarians. Oral swabs were subjected to bacterial isolation and conventional polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays for S. suis detection.

Results: The study included 40 participants working in the swine industry, with a predominant representation of males (62.5%) and Malaysian Chinese individuals (60.0%) who consumed pork (92.5%). Notably, none of the participants reported consuming raw or partially cooked pork. In spite of their occupational exposure risk, none of the oral swabs showed positive results for S. suis infection.

Conclusion: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report and detection study of S. suis using oral swabs obtained from swine personnel in Peninsular Malaysia. Keywords: carrier, high-risk occupation, human, Streptococcus suis.

Keywords: carrier, high-risk occupation, human, Streptococcus suis.

How to cite this article: Lee CY, Zakaria Z, Selvarajah GT, Mustaffa-Kamal F, Voon KGL, Fong MWC, and Ooi PT (2024) Screening of Streptococcus suis in swine workers of selected states in Peninsular Malaysia, Veterinary World, 17(1): 1-7.

Received: 12-08-2023 Accepted: 15-11-2023 Published online: 04-01-2024

Corresponding author: Peck Toung Ooi E-mail: ooi@upm.edu.my

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2024.1-7

Copyright: Lee, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.