Abstract
BackgroundStaphylococcus aureus is recognized as an important cause of food poisoning related to the consumption of raw, undercooked, or mishandled foods worldwide.MethodsA total of 90 individual meat samples and 200 clinical specimens were collected and investigated the frequency of S. aureus and classical enterotoxin genes. The samples were cultured on Baird-Parker and Mannitol salt agar and subjected for confirmatory biochemical tests and molecular detection of femA, sea, seb, sec, sed, and see genes.ResultsA total of 31 (34.5%) meat samples and 81 (40.5%) clinical specimens were positive for the presence of S. aureus. These isolates were detected with slightly higher frequency in clinical specimens than food samples (P> 0.05). Furthermore, the frequency of S. aureus in raw meat (23.4%) was higher than that in cooked meat samples (11.1%) (P< 0.05). Staphylococcal enterotoxin (SE) genes were identified in 18 (58.1%) of 31 meat isolates and 42 (51.8%) of 81 clinical isolates. The frequency of SE genes (except see) in meat isolates was slightly higher than that in clinical isolates (P> 0.05). We found sea and see genes with higher frequency than others in both meat and clinical samples. Furthermore, 55.5% of meat isolates and 38.1% of clinical isolates possessed more than one se gene.ConclusionDetection of enterotoxigenic S. aureus in clinical and raw meat samples shows a probable risk for public health. Therefore, intensive and continuous monitoring of potentially pathogenic S. aureus is strongly recommended in order to evaluate the human health risk arising from food consumption.
Highlights
Staphylococcus aureus is recognized as an important cause of food poisoning related to the consumption of raw, undercooked, or mishandled foods worldwide
A total of 90 individual meat samples were studied for the presence of S. aureus
A conventional cultural method based on the appearance of gray-black colonies surrounded by a clear zone on Baird-Parker agar plates was detected coagulase-positive staphylococci in 43 (47.8%) out of the 90 samples
Summary
Staphylococcus aureus is recognized as an important cause of food poisoning related to the consumption of raw, undercooked, or mishandled foods worldwide. Staphylococcus aureus is one of the most common causes of bacterial food poisoning worldwide, causing an estimated 241,148 cases and 6 deaths per year in the USA [1,2,3]. Foods that have been frequently incriminated in staphylococcal intoxication include raw retail meat and meat products, poultry and egg products, milk. As S. aureus is frequently isolated in raw milk, it is responsible for an increase in milk somatic cell count and a decrease in milk’s nutritional composition and productivity [12]. Among SEs, SEA is the most common cause of staphylococcal food poisoning worldwide, but the involvement of other classical SEs has been demonstrated [11]. Due to the stability of SEs in denaturing conditions such as heat and low pH, these toxins are not completely destroyed by mild cooking or digestion of food in the stomach [19, 20]
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