title: How should staphylococcal food poisoning outbreaks be characterized?
abstract: Staphylococcal food poisoning is one of the most common food-borne diseases and results from the ingestion of staphylococcal enterotoxins (SEs) preformed in food by enterotoxigenic strains of Staphylococcus aureus. To date, more than 20 SEs have been described: SEA to SElV. All SEs have superantigenic activity whereas only a few have been proved to be emetic, representing a potential hazard for consumers. Characterization of staphylococcal food poisoning outbreaks (SFPOs) has considerably progressed compared to 80 years ago, when staphylococci were simply enumerated and only five enterotoxins were known for qualitative detection. Today, SFPOs can be characterized by a number of approaches, such as the identification of S. aureus biovars, PCR and RT-PCR methods to identify the se genes involved, immunodetection of specific SEs, and absolute quantification by mass spectrometry. An integrated gene-to-protein approach for characterizing staphylococcal food poisoning is advocated.
authors: French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety (Anses)-Food safety laboratory of Maisons-Alfort, European Union Reference Laboratory for Coagulase Positive Staphylococci, 23 avenue du Général de Gaulle, 94706 Maisons-Alfort, France. Jacques-antoine.hennekinne@anses.fr
authors: Jacques-Antoine
authors: JA
authors: Hennekinne
authors: Annick
authors: A
authors: Ostyn
authors: Florence
authors: F
authors: Guillier
authors: Sabine
authors: S
authors: Herbin
authors: Anne-Laure
authors: AL
authors: Prufer
authors: Sylviane
authors: S
authors: Dragacci
mesh_terms: D001681:Biological Assay; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D004768:Enterotoxins / Q000633:toxicity; D006801:Humans; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D013058:Mass Spectrometry; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013202:Staphylococcal Food Poisoning / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000472:pathogenicity
chemical_list: D004768:Enterotoxins