Indagine igienico-sanitaria sulle produzioni delle malghe del comprensorio vicentino del Monte Grappa e dell’Altopiano di Asiago (Vicenza).

Milk and cheese production is a typical activity of several mountain areas with economic and historical implications. The guarantee of hygienic and sanitary traits is mandatory for legislative reasons and for the survive of this kind of food maker. E. coli and S. aureus are two powerfull indicator of hygienic and sanitary conditions respectively. Milk, Morlacco and Asiago allevo cheeses made in eight different places in the mountains areas of the province of Vicenza were submitted to microbiological and molecular analysis. Half of places investigated by plate analysis evidenced counts of S. aureus quite high, both in milk and cheese. The same result were confirmed by molecular analysis; the finding of enterotoxin A gene determinant was positive in the case of only one colony on 101 tested; the application of RAPD-PCR afforded to distinguish the same positive strain from all the others.