ENTEROTOXIN PRODUCTION BY STAPHYLOCOCCI ISOLATED FROM FOODS IN FRANCE

Two hundred and thirteen Staphylococcus aureus and 51 other staphyloco ccal strains were isolated from 121 foodstuffs of current consumption and two cutaneous samples. Their ability to produce staphylococcal ent erotoxins was tested and S. aureus strains were biotyped. The S. aureu s strains (30.5%) produced at least one of the five known staphylococc al enterotoxins whereas coagulase negative staphylococci did not produ ce any of them. The raw milk cheeses analysed were primarily contamina ted by strains belonging to animal or unspecified biovars. Only 15.9% of the S. aureus strains isolated from these products produced enterot oxins whereas 43% were found to be enterotoxigenic amongst the S. aw e us strains isolated from the other foodstuffs. The scheme of biotyping used seems to be reliable, allowing the classification of 73.7% of th e strains. S. aureus strains of human biovar origin were most often en terotoxigenic and enterotoxin C was the predominant type identified. I t was produced by 66% of the enterotoxigenic strains, singly or in com bination with other enterotoxins, Approximately 77% of the human strai ns also produced enterotoxin C, which is an amazing epidemiological di stinctive feature of the strains studied. Moreover ELISA tests used in this work exhibit problems of specificity. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.