Relationship among Properties of Staphylococcus aureus Isolated from Retail Foods and Human Hands, and Distribution of MRSA

Abstract

The relationship among staphylococcal enterotoxin (SE) type, coagulase type and production of β-lactamase of Staphylococcus aureus isolates was investigated. A total of 131 S. aureus strains isolated from food samples, human hands and environmental samples were used. The predominant type of SE was SEB (66.0%) and most strains producing SEB belonged to coagulase type VI (51.4%). β-Lactamase was detected in 37 (60.3%) of the 53 SE-positive isolates. Seven (88.9%) of the 8 SEA-producing isolates produced β-lactamase. One isolate from a healthy human hand was mecA-positive methicillin-resistant S. aureus, which showed coagulase type VIII and did not produce SE. Although PCR analysis was performed to determine the staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec) type of this strain, SCCmec type was not classified and this strain did not carry the Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) gene. © 2008, Japanese Society for Food Science and Technology. All rights reserved.