title: Further evidence for staphylococcal food poisoning outbreaks caused by egc-encoded enterotoxins.
abstract: Staphylococcal food poisoning represents the most prevalent foodborne intoxication worldwide. It is caused by oral intake of enterotoxins preformed by Staphylococcus aureus in food. The relevance of newly described enterotoxins in outbreaks of staphylococcal food poisoning is controversially discussed. Although the staphylococcal enterotoxins SEG, SEI, SEM, SEN, and SEO elicit emesis in a monkey feeding assay, there has been no conclusive proof of their emetic activity in humans. In this study, we provide further evidence suggesting that one of these enterotoxins or a combination of SEG, SEI, SEM, SEN, and SEO cause staphylococcal food poisoning. We investigated two outbreaks registered with the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health, in which only Staphylococcus aureus strains harboring the egc cluster, including seg, sei, sem, sen, and seo linked to typical signs of staphylococcal food poisoning were isolated. The outbreaks were caused by consumption of raw goat cheese and semi-hard goat cheese, and were linked to strains assigned to CC45 (agr type I) and CC9 (agr type II), respectively. These outbreaks provide further evidence that newly-described staphylococcal enterotoxins are likely to cause staphylococcal food poisoning in humans.
authors: Institute for Food Safety and Hygiene, Vetsuisse Faculty University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 272, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland. sophia.johler@uzh.ch.
authors: Sophia
authors: S
authors: Johler
authors: Cantonal Laboratory, Via Mirasole 22, 6500 Bellinzona, Switzerland. petra.giannini@ti.ch.
authors: Petra
authors: P
authors: Giannini
authors: Cantonal Laboratory, Via Mirasole 22, 6500 Bellinzona, Switzerland. dss-lc@ti.ch.
authors: Marco
authors: M
authors: Jermini
authors: Agroscope, Institute for Food Sciences, Schwarzenburgerstrasse 161, 3003 Bern, Switzerland. joerg.hummerjohann@agroscope.admin.ch.
authors: Jörg
authors: J
authors: Hummerjohann
authors: Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office, Schwarzenburgerstrasse 155, 3003 Bern, Switzerland. andreas.baumgartner@blv.admin.ch.
authors: Andreas
authors: A
authors: Baumgartner
authors: Institute for Food Safety and Hygiene, Vetsuisse Faculty University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 272, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland. ils@fsafety.uzh.ch.
authors: Roger
authors: R
authors: Stephan
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002611:Cheese / Q000382:microbiology; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D004768:Enterotoxins / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D005506:Food Contamination; D005516:Food Microbiology; D060005:Genotyping Techniques; D006041:Goats; D006801:Humans; D005810:Multigene Family; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D012307:Risk Factors; D013202:Staphylococcal Food Poisoning / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000145:classification / Q000302:isolation & purification*
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D004768:Enterotoxins