Development and use of PCR primers for the investigation of C1, C2 and C3 enterotoxin types of Staphylococcus aureus strains isolated from food-borneoutbreaks

Staphylococcus aureus is a major food-borne pathogen in many countries. Ent erotoxins produced by S. aureus strains include staphylococcal enterotoxins (SEs) A, B, C, D, E and G, H, I, etc. For SEC, in addition to the three ma jor SEC subtypes, i.e., SEC1, C2 and C3, other molecular variants may exist . Although the detection methods and the distribution of SEA, B, C, D, E ty pes of S. aureus in staphylococcal infections or food-borne outbreaks have been well documented, the differentiation method and the distribution of SE C subtypes in staphylococcal infections are rarely reported. In this study, four polymerase chain reaction (PCR) primers used in pairs (ENTC1/ENTCR, E NTC2/ENTCR and ENTC3/ENTCR) for the specific detection of SEC1, C2 and C3 g enes of S. aureus strains were developed. When 39 SEC S. aureus strains iso lated from fecal samples of randomly selected diarrheal patients associated with food-borne outbreaks in central Taiwan in 6 years (1995-2000) were an alyzed, it was found that the major SEC subtypes for these S. aureus strain s were SEC2 and C3. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.