Molecular Characteristics of Staphylococcus aureus From Food Samples and Food Poisoning Outbreaks in Shijiazhuang, China.

Guoping Lv,Lijie Li,Hongyan Dong,Yantao Pei,Weili Gao,Han Zhang,Hong Zhang,Ruiping Jiang,Liyun Qin,Lei Wang,Xiuping Wei

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2021.652276

Abstract

As an opportunistic pathogen worldwide, Staphylococcus aureus can cause food poisoning and human infections. This study investigated the sequence typing, the penicillin (blaZ) and methicillin (mec) resistance profiles of S. aureus from food samples and food poisoning outbreaks in Shijiazhuang City, and the staphylococcal enterotoxin (SE) types of the S. aureus isolates from food poisoning. A total of 138 foodborne S. aureus isolates were distributed into 8 clonal complexes (CCs) and 12 singletons. CC1, CC5, CC8, CC15, CC97, CC59, CC398, CC88, and CC7 were the predominant CCs of foodborne S. aureus isolates. Moreover, CC59, CC15, and CC5 were the most prevalent CCs in food poisoning outbreaks. SEE was the most commonly detected SE in food poisoning isolates. One hundred thirty-three S. aureus isolates harbored the penicillin-resistant gene blaZ, and nine isolates carried the mec gene. The present study further explained the relationship between S. aureus and foods and food poisoning and indicated the potential risk of S. aureus infection.

Highlights

Staphylococcal food poisoning outbreaks are often caused by foodborne S. aureus
The isolates were assigned to 12 clonal complexes (CCs) in staphylococcal food poisoning (SFP) outbreaks, including CC5, CC59, CC15, CC30, CC8, CC1, CC97, CC38, CC398, CC7, CC804, and CC88
This study provides the epidemic characteristics of foodborne

Summary

Introduction

As an important Gram-positive spherical pathogen, Staphylococcus aureus can release a variety of heat-stable staphylococcal enterotoxins (SEs) into food (Hennekinne et al, 2012; Wang et al, 2017; Oliveira et al, 2018) responsible for staphylococcal food poisoning (SFP) in human population.SFP is characterized by foodborne gastroenteritis (Argudín et al, 2010; Hennekinne et al, 2012; Lv et al, 2014), and it was recognized as one of the most prominent culprits in food poisoning outbreaks worldwide (Hennekinne et al, 2012; Wu et al, 2016). As an important Gram-positive spherical pathogen, Staphylococcus aureus can release a variety of heat-stable staphylococcal enterotoxins (SEs) into food (Hennekinne et al, 2012; Wang et al, 2017; Oliveira et al, 2018) responsible for staphylococcal food poisoning (SFP) in human population. The SEs (SEA to SEE; SEG to SEI; SEK; SEM to SET) and SE-like toxins (SElJ; SElL; SElU to SElZ) were reported as responsible agents for food poisoning outbreaks (Ono et al, 2008; Argudín et al, 2010; Hennekinne et al, 2012; Lv et al, 2014). Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) analysis of S. aureus is important for the prognosis of infection, and it provides means to trace epidemiologically related strains contributing to the tracking of the contamination source. The MLST types of S. aureus vary with regions and sources

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Discussion

Conclusion