Further Evidence for Staphylococcal Food Poisoning Outbreaks Caused by egc-Encoded Enterotoxins

Toxins

Sophia Johler¹  Petra Giannini⁴  Marco Jermini⁴  Jörg Hummerjohann³  Andreas Baumgartner²  Roger Stephan¹ 

[1] Institute for Food Safety and Hygiene, Vetsuisse Faculty University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 272, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland; E-Mail:;Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office, Schwarzenburgerstrasse 155, 3003 Bern, Switzerland; E-Mail:;Agroscope, Institute for Food Sciences, Schwarzenburgerstrasse 161, 3003 Bern, Switzerland; E-Mail:;Cantonal Laboratory, Via Mirasole 22, 6500 Bellinzona, Switzerland; E-Mails:

关键词: staphylococcal food poisoning;    enterotoxin;    seg;    sei;    outbreak investigation;    Staphylococcus aureus;   

DOI  :  10.3390/toxins7030997

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Staphylococcal food poisoning represents the most prevalent foodborne intoxication worldwide. It is caused by oral intake of enterotoxins preformed by Staphylococcus aureus in food. The relevance of newly described enterotoxins in outbreaks of staphylococcal food poisoning is controversially discussed. Although the staphylococcal enterotoxins SEG, SEI, SEM, SEN, and SEO elicit emesis in a monkey feeding assay, there has been no conclusive proof of their emetic activity in humans. In this study, we provide further evidence suggesting that one of these enterotoxins or a combination of SEG, SEI, SEM, SEN, and SEO cause staphylococcal food poisoning. We investigated two outbreaks registered with the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health, in which only Staphylococcus aureus strains harboring the egc cluster, including seg, sei, sem, sen, and seo linked to typical signs of staphylococcal food poisoning were isolated. The outbreaks were caused by consumption of raw goat cheese and semi-hard goat cheese, and were linked to strains assigned to CC45 (agr type I) and CC9 (agr type II), respectively. These outbreaks provide further evidence that newly-described staphylococcal enterotoxins are likely to cause staphylococcal food poisoning in humans.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.