Open AccessS taphylococcus aureus and its food poisoning toxins: characterization and outbreak investigation
Author(s) -
Hennekinne JacquesAntoine,
De Buyser MarieLaure,
Dragacci Sylviane
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
fems microbiology reviews
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.91
H-Index - 212
eISSN - 1574-6976
pISSN - 0168-6445
DOI - 10.1111/j.1574-6976.2011.00311.x
Subject(s) - outbreak , staphylococcus aureus , food poisoning , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , ingestion , enterotoxin , environmental health , medicine , virology , bacteria , genetics , biochemistry , escherichia coli , gene
Staphylococcal food poisoning ( SFP ) 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 S taphylococcus aureus . To date, more than 20 SEs have been described: SEA to SElV . All of them have superantigenic activity whereas half of them have been proved to be emetic, representing a potential hazard for consumers. This review, divided into four parts, will focus on the following: (1) the worldwide story of SFP outbreaks, (2) the characteristics and behaviour of S . aureus in food environment, (3) the toxinogenic conditions and characteristics of SEs , and (4) SFP outbreaks including symptomatology, occurrence in the European Union and currently available methods used to characterize staphylococcal outbreaks.