Factors affecting staphylococcal enterotoxin Cbovine production in milk

Significance of Whole-Genome Sequencing for the Traceability of Foodborne Pathogens: During the Processing of Meat and Dairy Products

The complexity of tracing foodborne pathogens in the food chain has increased significantly due to the long and complicated chain, the involvement of numerous links, and the presence of various types of pathogens at different stages and environments. Traditional typing techniques are not sufficient to meet the requirements of tracing pathogens in the food chain. Whole-Genome Sequencing (WGS) has gradually become an important technological tool for characterizing and tracing pathogens in the food chain due to comprehensive information, speed, and superior discriminatory power. This paper provides an overview of the advantages of WGS and its application in foodborne pathogen traceability. This paper focused on foodborne pathogen contamination pathways during the processing of animal foods in commercial restaurant kitchens and the potential contamination of milk, milk powder, and other dairy products by pathogens during processing in the dairy industry chain and environments. Improper handling practices during meat processing (i.e., using cloths, washing hands without soap, and cleaning boards with knives) were a critical point of foodborne pathogen cross-contamination in commercial kitchen premises. However, in dairy products, contamination of pathogens in raw milk was the main cause of foodborne disease outbreaks. Therefore, preventing the contamination of pathogens in food should not only be focused on hygiene measures during processing and in environments but also on the quality and hygiene of raw materials to prevent the spread of foodborne pathogens throughout the entire production chain. Further, Whole-Metagenome Sequencing and DNA sequence markers are considered to be the future direction of WGS. The purpose of this work is to promote the wider application of WGS during the processing of meat and dairy products and provide theoretical support for the rapid investigation and accurate traceability of foodborne pathogen outbreaks in food.

Effects of citronellal on growth and enterotoxins production in Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 29213

Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is known to be one of the most common foodborne pathogens capable of secreting a wide range of exotoxins such as enterotoxin, which severely threatens the health of consumers. Over the past few years, the development of safe and effective strategies in inhibiting the growth and enterotoxins generation of S. aureus in food turns out to be the research focus and emphasis. This research explores citronellal (CIT), a native compound with extensive existence in spices, which could effectively inhibit the growth and enterotoxins generation of S. aureus (ATCC 29213). Results from minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC), minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC), and time-kill curves, showed that CIT could tremendously inhibit the growth of S. aureus. Analysis on hemolysin showed that CIT at sub-MIC could significantly (p < 0.05) inhibit the hemolytic activity of S. aureus. As revealed by the results of ELISA, the production of enterotoxins in the culture supernatant and pork meat decreased significantly (p < 0.05) after exposure to CIT at sub-MIC. Furthermore, a significant (p < 0.05) decrease in dose-dependent was found in the transcription levels of virulence-related genes. In all, CIT proved to be a possible inhibitor of the growth and enterotoxins production of S. aureus with highly promising application in the food industry.

Effect of Temperature on the Expression of Classical Enterotoxin Genes among Staphylococci Associated with Bovine Mastitis

Staphylococcal food poisoning (SFP), caused by the contamination of staphylococcal enterotoxins, is a common foodborne disease worldwide. The aims of this study were: (1) to investigate classical staphylococcal enterotoxin genes, sea, seb, sec, sed, and see, among Staphylococcus aureus and coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS) associated with bovine mastitis; (2) to determine the effect of temperature on the expression of classical staphylococcal enterotoxin genes in staphylococci in milk. The detection of classical staphylococcal enterotoxin genes was performed using S. aureus (n = 51) and CNS (n = 47). The expression of classical enterotoxin genes, including sea, seb, sec, and see, was determined during the growth of staphylococci in milk subjected to ultra-high-temperature processing at two different temperatures: 8 °C and room temperature. Classical staphylococcal enterotoxin genes were expressed more frequently in S. aureus (35.30%) than in CNS (12.77%). The sec gene was most frequently detected in S. aureus (29.41%) and CNS (6.38%). Moreover, the expression of sea and sec was significantly higher at room temperature than at 8 °C after 16 h of incubation (p < 0.05). These results emphasize the importance of maintaining the storage temperature of milk below 8 °C to reduce the risk of SFP.

Prevalence of enterotoxins and other virulence genes of Staphylococcus aureus caused subclinical mastitis in dairy cows

BACKGROUND AND AIM

Milk production is one of the main props for the national economy. One of the crucial problems in this industry is subclinical mastitis, which harms this industry that considered the backbone of the economy. It is an infectious and zoonotic disease; the infection can spread between dairy animals through milkers' hands, and milking machines, while the human infection occurs due to the consumption of apparently hygienic milk. Staphylococcus aureus is one of the main causative agents of clinical and subclinical mastitis. It is also considered one of the bacteria incriminated in food intoxication of humans due to its virulence factors as enterotoxins and toxic shock syndrome. The current study was designed to assess the prevalence of S. aureus and its enterotoxins, as well as, its other virulence factors in milk collected from cows that suffer from subclinical mastitis.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Sixty cows were collected from different dairy farms located in Assiut Governorate, Egypt. These cows were subjected to the clinical examination of the udder and its lymph nodes before sampling. Milk samples were collected from clinically healthy udders. All the milk samples were examined by California mastitis test (CMT), polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for confirmation subclinical mastitis, presence of S. aureus and its enterotoxins genes and other virulence factors in the examined milk samples.

RESULTS

The cows included in the current study had healthy udders. The sixty collected milk samples were tested by CMT. 48/60 (80.0%) were positive samples; from the 48 positive samples, 46 (95.83%) samples were confirmed positive by S. aureus 16s rRNA PCR assay. Multiplex PCRs confirmed the presence of staphylococcus enterotoxin gene C (sec) in one sample, staphylococcus enterotoxin gene D (sed) in 23 samples, while ELISA assay confirmed the presence of the same enterotoxin in only two samples. On the other hand, other groups of genes responsible for some other virulence factors of S. aureus like the extracellular thermostable nuclease (nuc) gene were found in 33 samples, while toxic shock syndrome (tsst) gene and methicillin restraint S. aureus (mecA) gene were not detected in this study.

CONCLUSION

Subclinical mastitis is one of the hidden factors that adversely affect the health of both animals and humans. The milk is usually appeared good and may be consumed by humans especially children; however, it causes severe public health problems. In addition, the infected animals with this form of mastitis can spread the infection to other dairy animals and may be turned to a clinical case of contagious mastitis that may be ended by animal culling or death. S. aureus is one of the main causes of subclinical mastitis in cattle. In addition to extracellular thermostable nuclease (nuc) gene, staphylococcus enterotoxin gene C (sec) and staphylococcus enterotoxin gene D (sed) are the most common virulence genes confirmed in subclinical mastitis milk. These results highlighted the need to apply more hygienic measures in the dairy farms to avoid spreading the infection between animals to ensure the production of safe and healthy food to humans.

Characterization of Enterotoxigenic Bacillus cereus sensu lato and Staphylococcus aureus Isolates and Associated Enterotoxin Production Dynamics in Milk or Meat-Based Broth

Bacillus cereus sensu lato species, as well as Staphylococcus aureus, are important pathogenic bacteria which can cause foodborne illness through the production of enterotoxins. This study characterised enterotoxin genes of these species and examined growth and enterotoxin production dynamics of isolates when grown in milk or meat-based broth. All B. cereus s. l. isolates harboured nheA, hblA and entFM toxin genes, with lower prevalence of bceT and hlyII. When grown at 16 °C, toxin production by individual B. cereus s. l. isolates varied depending on the food matrix; toxin was detected at cell densities below 5 log₁₀(CFU/mL). At 16 °C no staphylococcal enterotoxin C (SEC) production was detected by S. aureus isolates, although low levels of SED production was noted. At 30 °C all S. aureus isolates produced detectable enterotoxin in the simulated meat matrix, whereas SEC production was significantly reduced in milk. Relative to B. cereus s. l. toxin production, S. aureus typically required reaching higher cell numbers to produce detectable levels of enterotoxin. Phylogenetic analysis of the sec and sel genes suggested population evolution which correlated with animal host adaptation, with subgroups of bovine isolates or caprine/ovine isolates noted, which were distinct from human isolates. Taken together, this study highlights the marked differences in the production of enterotoxins both associated with different growth matrices themselves, but also in the behaviour of individual strains when exposed to different food matrices.

Genotype and enterotoxigenicity of Staphylococcus epidermidis isolate from ready to eat meat products

We have previously shown that potentially pathogenic isolates of Staphylococcus epidermidis occur at high incidence in ready-to-eat food. Now, within 164 samples of ready-to-eat meat products we identified 32 S. epidermidis isolates. In 8 isolates we detected the genes encoding for staphylococcal enterotoxins, but in 7 S. epidermidis isolates these genes were not stable over passages. One isolate designated 4S was shown to stably harbour sec and sel genes. In the genome sequence of S. epidermidis 4S we identified 21,426-bp region flanked by direct-repeats, encompassing sec and sel genes, corresponding to the previously described composite staphylococcal pathogenicity island (SePI) in S. epidermidis FRI909. Alignment of S. epidermidis 4S and S. epidermidis FRI909 SePIs revealed 6 nucleotide mismatches located in 5 of the total of 29 ORFs. Genomic location of S. epidermidis 4S SePI was the same as in FRI909. S. epidermidis 4S is a single locus variant of ST561, being genetically different from FRI909. SECepi was secreted by S. epidermidis 4S to BHI broth ranging from 14 to almost 36μg/mL, to milk ranging from 6 to 9ng/mL, to beef meat juice from 2 to 3μg/mL and to pork meat juice from 1 to 2μg/mL after 24 and 48h of cultivation, respectively. We provide the first evidence that S. epidermidis occurring in food bears an element encoding an orthologue to Staphylococcus aureus SEC, and that SECepi can be produced in microbial broth, milk and meat juices. Regarding that only enterotoxins produced by S. aureus are officially tracked in food in EU, the ability to produce enterotoxin by S. epidermidis pose real risk for food safety.

Transcriptomic and metabolic responses of Staphylococcus aureus in mixed culture with Lactobacillus plantarum, Streptococcus thermophilus and Enterococcus durans in milk

Staphylococcus aureus is a major food-borne pathogen due to the production of enterotoxin and is particularly prevalent in contaminated milk and dairy products. The lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are widely used as biocontrol agents in fermented foods which can inhibit pathogenic flora. In our work, we investigated the influence of three strains of LAB (Lactobacillus plantarum, Streptococcus thermophilus and Enterococcus durans) on the relative expression of three enterotoxin genes (sea, sec, sell) and eight virulence and/or regulatory genes (sarA, saeS, codY, srrA, rot, hld/RNAIII, agrA/RNAII, sigB) in two S. aureus strains (MW2 and Sa1612) in TSB and reduced-fat milk (1.5 %) at 30 °C over a 24-h period. The tested LAB and S. aureus strains proved to be mutually non-competitive or only slightly competitive during co-cultivation. In addition, under the above-mentioned conditions, differential gene expression between the S. aureus MW2 and Sa1612 strains was well documented. S. aureus growth was changed in mixed culture with LAB; however, its effect on the repression of sea and sec expression correlated with production of these virulence factors. In comparison, the presence of LAB strains generally inhibited the expression of sec, sell, sarA, seaS, agrA/RNAII and hld/RNAIII genes. The effect of LAB strains presence on the expression of sea, codY, srrA, rot and sigB genes was medium, time, LAB and S. aureus strain specific. SEA and SEC production was significantly reduced in milk compared to TSB in pure culture. After the 24-h cultivation, S. aureus MW2 and Sa1612 SEC production was 187 and 331 times lower in milk compared to TSB, respectively (0.07 and 0.39 ng/mL in milk, versus 13.1 and 129.2 ng/mL in TSB, respectively). At the same time S. aureus MW2 and Sa1612 SEA production was 77 and 68 times lower in milk compared to TSB, respectively (0.99 and 0.17 ng/mL in milk, versus 76.4 and 11.5 ng/mL in TSB, respectively). This study has revealed new insights into the interaction between S. aureus and LAB (L. plantarum, S. thermophilus, E. durans) on the level of the expression and/or production of S. aureus enterotoxins, regulatory and virulence genes in different media, including milk. This study provides data which may improve the quality of food production.

Improved Multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction for Rapid Staphylococcus Aureus Detection in Meat and Milk Matrices

Staphylococcal food poisoning represents one of the most frequently occurring intoxications, caused by staphylococcal enterotoxins (SE-s) and staphylococcal enterotoxin-like proteins (SEl-s). Therefore, there is a need for rapid, sensitive and specific detection method for this human pathogen and its toxin genes in food matrices. The present work is focused on Staphylococcus aureus detection by a nonaplex polymerase chain reaction, which targets the 23S rRNA gene for identification of S. aureus at the species level, genes for classical SE-s (SEA, SEC, SED), new SE-s (SEH, SEI), SEl-s (SEK, SEL) and tsst-1 gene (toxic shock syndrome toxin). Primers were properly designed to avoid undesirable interactions and to create a reliably identifiable profile of amplicons when visualized in agarose gel. According to obtained results, this approach is able to reach the detection sensitivity of 12 colony forming units from milk and meat matrices without prior culturing and DNA extraction.

The Use of Multiplex PCR to Determine the Prevalence of Enterotoxigenic Staphylococcus aureus Isolated from Raw Milk, Feta Cheese, and Hand Swabs

Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) can cause mastitis in cattle and, therefore, can be present in milk. This study was undertaken to determine the prevalence of coagulase positive S. aureus and its enterotoxin genes sea, seb, and sec in isolates recovered from raw milk, feta cheese, and human hand swabs of milk and cheese handlers in Beni-Suef province, Egypt. A total of 100 samples of raw milk and 50 samples of pasteurized-milk feta cheese were collected. In addition, 50 hand swabs from milk handlers and 25 hand swabs from cheese handlers were examined for the presence of coagulase positive S. aureus. The isolates were characterized by multiplex PCR for detection of sea, seb, and sec genes, and for resistance to 5 classes of commonly used antibiotics. Twelve (12/100), 12 (6/50), and 17% (13/75) of milk, cheese, and hand swab samples, respectively, were positive for coagulase positive S. aureus. One isolate was obtained from each positive sample (31 isolates), and none contained genes for SEA or SEC production. Twenty-five percent, 33%, and 31%, respectively, of the isolates contained the genes for SEB, resulting in 3%, 4%, and 5% of samples being positive for toxin producing coagulase positive S. aureus, respectively. At least one isolate was resistant to each of the antibiotics tested. Despite the low potential for SEB production shown, preventative measures, such as maintenance of the cold-chain and good hygienic practices should be implemented to further reduce the potential risk to public health from SEB, and to reduce the spread of antimicrobial resistance.