Phenotypic and genotypic characterization of Staphylococcus aureus strains isolated from a familial foodborne outbreak.

Phenotypic and genotypic characterization of Staphylococcus aureus strains isolated from a familial foodborne outbreak. Roum Arch Microbiol Immunol. 2013 Jul-Sep;72(3):210-7 Authors: Coldea IL, Drăgulescu EC, Lixandru BE, Dragomirescu CC, Codiţă I Abstract Although Staphylococcus aureus is frequently reported among the common causative agents of foodborne diseases in Europe, very little is known about the strains involved in staphylococcal food-poisoning outbreaks in our region. Therefore, the aim of this study was to characterize the staphylococcal strains recovered from an autochthonous food-poisoning familial outbreak through phenotypic and genotypic methods. Ten S. aureus strains from food and human sources, submitted to the reference laboratory, were tested for susceptibility to 18 antibiotics by disk diffusion and production of enterotoxins A, B, C, D using a reversed passive latex-agglutination assay, and further analyzed by multiplex PCR-based assays for the detection of sea, seb, sec, sed, see, seh, sei, sej, sem, and sen genes. Phage typing, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and spa typing were performed for evaluating the clonal relatedness of the isolates. Isolates from stool samples and food displayed a similar antibiotic resistance profile, produced enterotoxin B, were PCR-positive for seb, sei and sem genes, and revealed an indistinguishable SmaI macrorestriction pattern at PFGE analysis, suggesting that incri...
Source: Roumanian Archives of Microbiology and Immunology - Category: Microbiology Tags: Roum Arch Microbiol Immunol Source Type: research