Prevalence of classical Staphylococcal enterotoxin genes of Staphylococcus aureus isolated from ready-to-eat food in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Abstract

Contamination of Staphylococcus aureus in ready-to-eat (RTE) food is a leading cause of foodborne illness in Vietnam. The aim of this study was to analyze the frequency of classical Staphylococcal enterotoxin genes (sea, seb, sec, sed, and see genes) in S. aureus strains isolated from ready-to-eat food in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam (76 strains of  S. aureus were isolated from 200 random samples of ready - to - eat (RTE) food, which include pate, pork roll, barbecue pork, roasted pork and roasted duck, 40 samples of each), all the samples were collected from different fast food services on street in district 5, 6, 7 and 8 in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. All the trains of S. aureus were stored at -70oC for analyzing Staphylococcal enterotoxin genes). The obtained results in this study indicated that out of 76 S. aureus strains, there are 6 strains (7.9%) carried SE genes:  sea gene (1.32%) was detected in one pate sample (Dist. 8), sec gene was detected (3.95%) in three samples, which are two pork roll samples (Dist. 7 and 8) and one roasted duck sample (Dist. 8), and finally see gene was detected in one pate sample (Dist. 8)and in one pork roll sample (Dist.  8). This could be a serious public health risk and highlight the need to implement good hygiene practices.