STUDIES OF ENTEROTOXIN PRODUCTION BY STRAINS OF STAPHYLOCOCCUS-AUREUS OF DIFFERENT ORIGINS

Abstract

S. aureus strains (376) of clinical (from healthy and sick people) and epidemiological (from hospital workers and outbreaks of food-poisoning due to mastitic cow milk) origin were tested for their ability to produce the enterotoxins A, B and C1 by micro agargel precipitation against specific antisera. These strains were also studied by phagetyping, biochemical typing and antibiograms. Most strains isolated from food poisonings were associated with enterotoxin-A-production. Enterotoxin-B-producing strains were predominant in autopsy material. Most strains from human pathological processes which were enterotoxin producing belonged to phage group III. Enterotoxin-producing strains were somewhat more resistant to antibiotics than the enterotoxin-negative strains. Correlations between the production of enterotoxin B and methicillin resistance were evident. The strains were also classified as S. aureus var. hominis or S. aureus var. bovis. With 1 exception, all enterotoxin-producing strains which could be classified in this way, were S. aureus var. hominis. Of 5 enterotoxin-producing strains isolated from cattle, only 1 strain was S. aureus var. bovis, the others were S. aureus var. hominis. The ability to produce the enterotoxins A, B and C1 is apparently very rare in S. aureus var. bovis strains.