Enterotoxigenicity of Staphylococcus aureus Isolated from Food Handlers during Hajj Season in Saudi Arabia

Anas Serag Dablool, Saeed Saeed Al-Ghamdi
DOI: 10.4236/ojsst.2011.12007                

Abstract

Food poisoning during Hajj season is one of the main hazardous issues where most of the health services in Saudi Arabia are targeting to minimize every year during Hajj seasons. Ordinarily, food handlers are subjected to medical examination before assignment to work. However, they are mostly lacking proper training in food handling operations, mass feeding, and sanitary practices. This situation may encourage causing food poisoning especially with staphylococcus enterotoxins. 1516 clinical specimens from food handlers of different nationalities in Makkah were microbiologically investigated for bacterial pathogens during the hajj seasons of 2001-2002 in Makkah, Saudi Arabia. 129 Staphylococcus aureus isolates were isolated. Of which, 35% produced enterotoxins A, B, C and D singly or in pairs, when such enterotoxins were evaluated by Reversed Passive Latex Agglutination test (RPLA). Enterotoxins C and A, elaborated by 15.5% and 12.4%, isolates respectively, which showed the highest percentage. They were mostly isolated from nasal swabs than throat swabs. All isolates were resistant to Penicillin G. On the other hand, they were sensitive to Clindamycin, Oxacillin and Gentamicin when tested by Kirby-Bauer method. The (RPLA) method yielded satisfactory results.

Keywords

Staphylococcus aureus, Makkah, Hajj, Enterotoxin

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1]	P. M. Orwin, J. R. Fitzgerald, D. Y. M. Leung, J. A. Gutierrez, G. A. Bohach and P. M. Schlievert, “Characterization of Staphylo-coccus aureus Enterotoxin L,” Infection and Immunity, Vol. 71, No. 5, 2003, pp. 2916-2919. doi:10.1128/IAI.71.5.2916-2919.2003
[2]	M. Ellis, A. Serreli, P. Colque-Navarro, U. Hedstrom, A. Chacko, E. Siemkowicz and R. Mollby, “Role of Staphylococcal Enterotoxin A in a Fatal Case of Endocarditis,” Journal of Medical Microbiology, Vol. 52, No. 2, 2003, pp. 109-112. doi:10.1099/jmm.0.05003-0
[3]	T. O. Yarovinsky, M. P. Mohning, M. A. Bradford, M. M. Monick and G. W. Hunning-hake, “Increased Sensitivity to Staphylococcal Enterotoxin B Following Adenoviral Infection,” Infection and Immunity, Vol. 73, No. 6, 2005, pp. 3375-3384. doi:10.1128/IAI.73.6.3375-3384.2005
[4]	D. L. Hu, J.-C. Cui, K. Omoe, H. Sashinami, Y. Yokomizo, K. Shinagawa and A. A. Nakane, “Mutant of Staphylococcal Enterotoxin C Devoid of Bacterial Superantigenic Activity Elicits a Th2 Immune Re-sponse for Protection against Staphylococcus aureus Infection,” Infection and Immunity, Vol.73, No. 1, 2005, pp. 174-180.
[5]	X. Wang, H. Zhang, M. Xu, Y. Cai, C. Liu, Z. Su and C. Zhang, “Biological Characterization of the Zinc Site Coordinating Histidine Residues of Staphylococcal Enterotoxin C2,” Microbiology, Vol. 155, No. 3, 2009, pp. 680-686. doi:10.1099/mic.0.025254-0
[6]	L. Jodi, “Staphylococcus: Molecular Genetics Caister,” Academic Press, Cambridge, 2008, pp. 155-161.
[7]	T. Tollersrud, A. H. Kampen and K. Kenny, “Staphylococcus aureus Enterotoxin D Is Secreted in Milk and Stimulates Specific Antibody Responses in Cows in the Course of Experimental Intramammary Infection,” Infection and Immunity, Vol. 74, No. 6, 2006, pp. 3507-3512. doi:10.1128/IAI.01726-05
[8]	N. Balaban and A. Rasooly, “Staphylococcal Enterotoxins,” International Journal of Food Microbiology, Vol. 61, No. 1, 2000, pp. 1-10. doi:10.1016/S0168-1605(00)00377-9
[9]	K. Omoe, M. Ishikawa, Y. Shimoda, D.-L. Hu, S. Ueda and K. Shinagawa, “Detection of seg, seh, and sei Genes in Staphylococcus aureus Isolates and Determination of the Enterotoxin Productivities of S. aureus Isolates Harboring seg, seh, or sei Genes,” Journal of Clinical Microbiology, Vol. 40, No. 3, 2002, pp. 857-862. doi:10.1128/JCM.40.3.857-862.2002
[10]	O. Dauwalder, D. Thomas, T. Ferry, A.-L. Debard, C. Badiou, F. Vandenesch, J. Etienne, G. Lina and G. Monneret, “Comparative Inflammatory Properties of Staphylococcal Superantigenic Enterotoxins SEA and SEG: Implications for Septic Shock,” Journal of Leuko-cyte Biology, Vol. 80, No. 4, 2006, pp. 753-758. doi:10.1189/jlb.0306232
[11]	M. M. Fernandez, R. Guan, C. P. Swaminathan, E. L. Malchiodi and R. A. Mariuzza, “Crystal Structure of Staphylococcal Enterotoxin I (SEI) in Complex with a Human,” The Journal of Biological Chemistry, Vol. 281, No. 35, 2006, pp. 25356-25364.
[12]	H. Nakaminami, N. No-guchi, M. Ikeda, M. Hasui, M. Sato, S. Yamamoto, T. Yoshida, T. Asano, M. Senoue and M. Sasatsu, “Molecular Epidemiology and Antimicrobial Susceptibilities of 273 Exfoliative to Xin-Encoding- Gene-Positive Staphylococcus aureus Isolates from Patients with Impetigo in Japan,” Journal of Medical Mi-crobiology, Vol. 57, No. 10, 2008, pp. 1251-1257. doi:10.1099/jmm.0.2008/002824-0
[13]	P. M. Orwin, D. Y. M. Leung, H. L. Donahue, R. P. Novick and P. M. Schlievert, “Biochemical and Biological Properties of Staphylococcal En-terotoxin K,” Infection and Immunity, Vol. 69, No. 1, 2001, pp. 360-366. doi:10.1128/IAI.69.1.360-366.2001
[14]	L. L. Yves, F. Baron and M. Gautier “Staphylococcus aureus and Food Poisoning,” Genetics and Molecular Research, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2003, pp. 63-76.
[15]	K. Omoe, K. Imanishi, D.-L. Hu, H. Kato, H. Ta-kahashi-Omoe, A. Nakane, T. Uchiyama and K. Shinagawa, “Biological Properties of Staphylococcal Enterotoxin- Like Toxin Type R,” Infection and Immunity, Vol. 72, No. 6, 2004, 3664-3667. doi:10.1128/IAI.72.6.3664-3667.2004
[16]	K. Becker, B. Keller, C. von Eiff, M. Bruck,, G. Lubritz, J. Etienne and G. Peters, “Enterotoxigenic Potential of Staphylococcus intermedius,” Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Vol. 67, No. 12, 2001, pp. 5551-5557. doi:10.1128/AEM.67.12.5551-5557.2001
[17]	S. J. M. Bidawid and S. A. Sattar, “Contamination of Foods by Food Handler: Experiments on Hepatitis A Virus Transfer to Food and Its Interruption,” Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Vol. 66, No. 7, 2001, pp. 2759-2763.
[18]	H. L. Wei and C. S. Chiou, “Molecular Subtyping of Staphylococcus aureus from an Outbreak Associated with a Food Handler,” New York Press, New York, 2002, pp. 39-41.
[19]	O. Akineden, C. Annemuller, A. A. Hassan, C. Lammler, W. Wolter and M. Zschock, “Toxin Genes and Other Characteristics of Staphylococcus aureus Isolates from Milk of Cows with Mastitis,” Clinical and Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology, Vol. 8, No. 5, 2001, pp. 959-964.