Enterotoxin production, phage typing and serotyping of Staphylococcus aureus strains isolated from clinical materials and food.
The production of enterotoxins A, B, C and F by strains of Staphylococcus aureus isolated from various clinical sources and from isolates implicated in food poisoning was investigated. One hundred and ninety one of the 374 clinical strains (51.1%) were found to be enterotoxigenic; of these, 81 (27.7%) strains produced enterotoxin A, 57 (15.3%) strains produced enterotoxin B, 23 (6.2%) strains produced enterotoxin C, and 64 (17.1%) strains produced enterotoxin F. These enterotoxigenic strains were most frequently lysed by phages of group III (21.5%) or were not typable (22%). Eighteen of the 29 strains implicated in food poisoning were enterotoxigenic. The correlation of antigens and bacteriophage patterns with enterotoxigenicity was determined: enterotoxin A being related to a4 antigen, enterotoxin B to phages of 94/96 complex with c1, o antigens, and enterotoxin F to phages of group I with 2632, k1k2, m antigens.
D001427:Bacterial Toxins; D001434:Bacteriophage Typing; D004768:Enterotoxins / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D005506:Food Contamination; D005516:Food Microbiology; D006801:Humans; D013202:Staphylococcal Food Poisoning / Q000382:microbiology*; D013204:Staphylococcus Phages; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000145:classification* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D018089:Superantigens
D001427:Bacterial Toxins; D004768:Enterotoxins; D018089:Superantigens; C030107:enterotoxin F, Staphylococcal; C026066:enterotoxin A, Staphylococcal; C031818:enterotoxin B, staphylococcal; C034959:enterotoxin C, staphylococcal