CURRENT PERSPECTIVES ON DETECTION OF STAPHYLOCOCCAL ENTEROTOXINS

Staphylococcal food poisoning is one of the most economically importan t food-borne diseases in the United States, costing approximately $1.5 billion each year in medical expenses and loss of productivity. The a mount of staphylococcal enterotoxin required to cause illness in human s depends on the susceptibility of the individuals. As little as 0.5 t o 0.75 ng/ml of enterotoxin A in chocolate milk was shown to be able t o cause illness in school children. Many methods have been developed f or the detection of enterotoxins: immunological and biological assays. Immunological assays are more sensitive and specific and are the basi s for detection of the identified enterotoxins. However, biological as says are useful for the detection of uncharacterized enterotoxins. Thi s article reviews methods currently available for enterotoxin detectio n, including biological assays, immunodiffusion, radioimmunoassay, enz yme-linked immunosorbent assay, polymerase chain reaction-based method s, and various commercially available diagnostic kits.