Staphylococcal food poisoning 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 Staphylococcus aureus. To date, more than 20 SEs have been described: SEA to SElV. All SEs have superantigenic activity whereas only a few have been proved to be emetic, representing a potential hazard for...

Bacterial toxin poisoning Clostridium botulinum Human disease due to the Clostridium botulinum bacterium is called botulism and is classified as poisoning because it is due to botulinum neurotoxins produced outside the human body by this anaerobic bacterium. Contaminated food is mainly of animal origin, but it can also be of plant origin (processed meat, ham, cheese, canned meat, fish, canned b...

In 2007, an outbreak of foodborne botulism occurred in Hebei province, China. An epidemiological investigation and laboratory detection studies showed that sausage contaminated by type A Clostridium botulinum caused this outbreak of food poisoning. Its clinical and epidemiological features were different from previous reports of food poisoning.

The pathology of the alimentary tracts of nine patients dying of Salmonella typhimurium infection is reviewed. Two patients had previous gastric operations, supporting previous reports that such patients are more susceptible to food poisoning. Four had no parietal (oxyntic) cells in the gastric mucosa, suggesting hypoor anacidity. Only one had acute gastritis. None had acute enteritis, but in h...

Twelve people became ill with vomiting and diarrhoea approximately four hours after eating cake with a cream filling at a birthday party and on the day following. The cake had been prepared by a food handler who had long experience in preparing foods for such functions. Staphylococcus aureus that produced enterotoxin A was isolated from the nose, the fingernails, and a healed infection on the n...

It was believed that food poisoning in Osaka in 2000 was due to small amounts of staphylococcal enterotoxin A (SEA) in reconstituted milk. Results of this study clearly indicate that SEH was also present in the raw material of reconstituted milk, indicating that the food poisoning was caused by multiple staphylococcal enterotoxins.

1. Historical aspects and contemporary problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .523 2. Characteristics of Staphylococcus aureus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .526 3. The toxins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....

Food poisoning is becoming a very important health problem both internationally and in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Salmonella species (spp) is the most important pathogen, but due to the extensive effort carried by the health authorities to prevent or eradicate communicable diseases, new pathogens are now emerging such as Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Norwalk like viruses. This review p...

The prevalences of various genotypes of enterotoxin gene-carrying (cpe-positive) Clostridium perfringens type A in 24 different food poisoning outbreaks were 75% (chromosomal IS1470-cpe), 21% (plasmid-borne IS1470-like-cpe), and 4% (plasmid-borne IS1151-cpe). These results show that C. perfringens type A carrying the plasmid-borne cpe is a common cause of food poisoning.