BACKGROUND S. aureus is a pathogen in humans and animals that harbors a wide variety of virulence factors and resistance genes. This bacterium can cause a wide range of mild to life-threatening diseases. In the latter case, fast diagnostic procedures are important. In routine diagnostic laboratories, several genotypic and phenotypic methods are available to identify S. aureus strains and determ...

Staphylococcal food poisoning and botulism are caused by the ingestion of food containing exotoxins. Outbreaks of both are still a problem in many countries. This paper attempts to summarize information relating to these illnesses, together with advice on how their incidence may be reduced, or better still prevented. Introduction It is an unfortunate fact that each year a large number of people...

Staphylococcus aureus D4508, obtained from a patient with nonmenstrual toxic shock syndrome (TSS), produced enterotoxin A while not making other known enterotoxins or TSS toxin 1. Concentrated culture fluids of the organism, administered subcutaneously in miniosmotic pumps, induced TSS-like symptoms (four of six animals succumbed). Identical culture fluids pretreated with anti-enterotoxin A ser...

Viability of Staphylococcus xylosus isolated from artisanal sausages for application as starter cultures in meat products Viability of Staphylococcus xylosus strains AD1 and U5 isolated from natural fermented sausages was investigated as starter cultures in fermented sausages produced in the South Region of Brazil. The study demonstrated that the Staphylococcus xylosus strains AD1 and U5 showed...

We compared four versions of the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for their suitability for detecting staphylococcal enterotoxins. The sandwich with labeled antibody proved to be the best. We used it with a sorbent consisting of antibody-coated polystyrene spheres reacted with 20 ml of food extract. The sensitivity of the test was 0.1 ng of enterotoxin per ml, which is far below clinical relev...

In patients with cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL) bacterial infections constitute a major clinical problem caused by compromised skin barrier and a progressive immunodeficiency. Indeed, the majority of patients with advanced disease die from infections with bacteria, e.g., Staphylococcus aureus. Bacterial toxins such as staphylococcal enterotoxins (SE) have long been suspected to be involved in...

expression at the level of sec mRNA. staphylococcal enterotoxin C gene (sec) High sodium chloride concentrations inhibit