Staphyloccocal Enterotoxins and Staphylococcal Food Poisoning (SFP)

Dear Colleagues,

Staphylococcal food poisoning outbreaks (SFPOs) are a major cause of foodborne illnesses in the world. Ingestion of only a few nanograms of preformed enterotoxins in food rapidly and abruptly induces symptoms such as nausea, copious vomiting, abdominal cramps, and diarrhea (30 min–8 hours). As symptoms are generally not sufficient to assign the causal agent, identification of the source of contamination is challenging and remains critical to explain food poisoning events.

An early account of a food poisoning outbreak caused by the consumption of sausages contaminated by micrococcus during spring 1918 in the battle of Verdun (France) was given by Baerthlein. and the identification of the first staphylococcal enterotoxin type A (SEA) took place in 1959. Research has intensified more recently, with the past two decades having witnessed the discovery of 28 new SEs, including 15 types for which emetic action was demonstrated. Over the 33 SEs described in the literature, metic activity has only been demonstrated for 19 SEs (SEA, SEB, SEC, SED, SEE, SEG, SEH, SEI, SEK, SEL, SEM, SEN, SEO, SEP, SEQ, SER, SES, SET, and SEY). SElJ, SElU, SElV, SElW, SElX, SElZ, and SEl26 to SEl33 have not yet been tested for their emetic activity. This number will undoubtedly continue to grow. Today, only five types of SEs (SEA, SEB, SEC, SED, and SEE) can be detected during routine analysis using commercially available kits. Therefore, SFPO investigation remains limited by the lack of a toolbox allowing a complete characterization of coagulase positive staphylococci and their enterotoxins, and their reporting to the competent authorities is largely underestimated. Thus, SEs are assumed to be a threat to public health.

Authors are invited to contribute to this Special Issue on “Staphylococcal Enterotoxins and Foodborne Outbreaks”, which focuses on:

• The toolbox used to properly characterize outbreaks and especially food samples;
• Staphylococcal food poisoning outbreaks investigation
• Surveillance activities implemented in order to prevent the marketing of contaminated food;
• Scientific work allowing to increase the knowledge of the involvement of new types of staphylococcal enterotoxins in SFPO;
• Network performances for detection and characterization of coagulase positive staphylococci and their enterotoxins (Inter-laboratory tests).

Dr. Yacine Nia
Guest Editor

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• staphyloccocal enterotoxins
• food poisoning outbreaks
• surveillance
• coagulase positive staphylococci
• food safety
• analytical methods
• staphylococcus aureus
• genomes sequencing
• ELISA methods
• inter-laboratory tests