Arcobacter species in milk contamination: a prevalence-based systematic review and meta-analysis

Milk is consumed raw or minimally processed and plays a role in the dissemination of pathogens of public health concerns. The present investigation is aimed at assessing the occurrence of pathogenic Arcobacter species in 2945 milk samples.

Arcobacter data systematically retrieved from 5 repositories until 20/02/2022 according to PRISMA principles was logit transformed and fitted using a generalized linear mixed-effects model. The between-study heterogeneity was estimated as I2-value. Leave-one-out-cross-validation and funnel plot with Egger's tests was used to assess the hardiness and bias in the model. The global prevalence of Arcobacter genus in the milk was 12% [95%-CI: 7-19%; I2 = 87.3%, 95%-CI: 83.0-90.6%] and no publication bias observed (Eggers' test: p = 0.112). Arcobacter genus prevalence in milk was 13% (95%-CI: 5-30%), 10% (95%-CI: 1-46%), and 9% (95%-CI: 4-19%) in Europe, South America, and Asia, respectively. A. butzleri was the most prevalent (8% [95%-CI: 4-13%]), then A. cryaerophilus (0.6% [95%-CI: 0.2-33.2%]) and A. skirrowii (0.19% [95%-CI: 0.03-1.2%]). Also species-specific prevalence of A. butzleri, A. cryaerophilus, and A. skirrowii varied continentally, but the test for species-specific/continental differences were not significantly different (p > 0.5).