Bacterial adherence to different inert surfaces evaluated by epifluorescence microscopy and plate count method

The adherence of Listeria inoccua L6a and Staphylococcus aureus ATCC6538 was evaluated on stainless steel (SS), polycarbonate (PC) and polypropylene (PP) chips. The EP results showed a significant difference (p<0.05) among the microorganism species interactions, the surfaces and the contact time. The number of adhered cells on the chip surfaces increased as contact time increased and the number of L. innocua or S. aureus on the surface of SS, PC and PP chips reached 1.0x105 CFU/cm2 after 12 h of contact, in both methods. The CP method showed a better sensitivity to detect low number of adhered cells. The EP was better when the average number of adhered cells was between 10 and 100 per microscopy field.