ABSTRACT

Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) associated food borne disease is one of the major health concerned around the globe. A set of enterotoxins (encoded by enterotoxin genes) produced by S. aureus are actively involved in growth and survival of the bacterium in diverse conditions. These enterotoxins are the major cause of gastroenteric syndrome, in food poisoning. In the Indian subcontinent, different food items are consumed that might contaminate during the preparation and storage. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the prevalence of S. aureus in regularly consumed food items from the southern part of India. Total 224 food samples were collected and categorized as, Processed and canned food, Home sterilized food and Raw and unsterilized food. Out of 224, total 51 food samples were identified S. aureus positive using culture based morphological identification, biochemical assay, and molecular techniques. Results indicate that about 20 % of Processed and canned food, 10 % of Home sterilized food and 70 % of Raw and unsterilized food were S. aureus positive. Furthermore, quantitative PCR based profiling was performed to investigate the frequency of S. aureus enterotoxin (SEA) gene among the S. aureus positive samples. Observation indicates that 16 food samples were positive to enterotoxin SEA gene, mainly in milk (12.5%), idali (6.2%), coconut paste (6.2%), fruit juice (25%), sweet (12.5%), panipoori (18.7%) and raw meat (18.7%). The current study investigated that prevalence of S. aureus in regularly consumed food items and their possible route of contamination from south India. Keywords: food poisoning, enterotoxin, SEA gene, Staphylococcus aureus, qPCR
Publication date: 01/06/2023

https://ijbpas.com/pdf/2023/June/MS_IJBPAS_2023_7161.pdf

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https://doi.org/10.31032/IJBPAS/2023/12.6.7161