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Category: Applied and Industrial Microbiology; Food Microbiology
Staphylococcus aureus in the Dairy Chain, Page 1 of 2
< Previous page | Next page > /docserver/preview/fulltext/10.1128/9781555817121/9781555815424_Chap20-1.gif /docserver/preview/fulltext/10.1128/9781555817121/9781555815424_Chap20-2.gifAbstract:
Staphylococcus aureus is an important pathogen causing a variety of diseases. Some strains are able to produce staphylococcal enterotoxins (SEs) causing food intoxications. Two different aspects are of importance concerning the presence of S. aureus in the dairy chain: (i) clinical and subclinical infections of cows, not only posing a health risk via shedding of S. aureus in their milk but also being an economic factor in dairy farming; and (ii) transmission into the dairy chain and production of enterotoxins leading to human food poisoning. There are five major classical SE types causing food poisoning, i.e., SEA, SEB, SEC, SED, and SEE, and several newly identified SEs. Rapid detection and quantification methods could serve as valuable tools for early indication of process failures, and as part of hazard analysis and critical control points concepts. The trend in S. aureus enterotoxin detection and quantification is enhanced by the desire to reduce the time from sampling to identification and confirmation in the laboratory. These commercially available rapid methods (e.g., classical enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)) can detect approximately 1.0 nanogram of toxin/g of food. A further recent development is a real-time immunoquantitative PCR method for the detection of SE. For further characterization of enterotoxigenic S. aureus, a number of techniques have been developed lately, including, for example, DNA microarrays and subtyping methods. Characterization and subtyping methods facilitate tracking and tracing the contamination and transmission routes of S. aureus in the dairy chain.
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Possible entrance of S. aureus in the dairy chain.
Work flow for identification of staphylococci by MALDI-TOF (MS).
Food safety and process hygiene criteria of the European Regulation EC 2005/2073 for cheese and milk products a