Jp. Rosec et al., ENTEROTOXIN PRODUCTION BY STAPHYLOCOCCI ISOLATED FROM FOODS IN FRANCE, International journal of food microbiology, 35(3), 1997, pp. 213-221
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.