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Food handlers: a bridge in the journey of enterotoxigenic MRSA in food

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Abstract

We investigated the presence of enterotoxigenic and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in a kitchen of a catering firm by collecting 100 food samples and 100 utensil-equipment samples after sanitation. Additional 186 samples in total were collected by swabbing the mouths, noses and hands of 62 kitchen staff members during working hours. The isolation of S. aureus was performed using a culture method and verified by using a genetic method (PCR). The presence of toxin genes and the toxic shock syndrome gene (tst) was analyzed by PCR. ELISA was used to investigate whether the isolates bearing a toxin gene that produces enterotoxin or not. In this research we obtained 1930 isolates from 386 samples. Using molecular typing by PCR, 842 Staphylococcus spp. were found of which 307 (36.4 %) were identified as S. aureus. 198 (64.4 %) of the S. aureus strains were identified as CoA positive and 89 (28.9 %) as MRSA. Our data demonstrate the presence of MRSA and enterotoxigenic S. aureus in a catering kitchen providing daycare and hospital refectories. Given the facts that the rate of kitchen staff members contaminated with enterotoxigenic strains was rather high and that the kitchen contained S. aureus even after sanitation and that there was uneducated staff and insufficient hygiene practices aroused suspicions of the presence of biofilms and/or multi-resistant strains which could manifest a serious public health concern.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Food Safety and Public Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Kafkas University, Kars, Turkey

    Çiğdem Sezer & Vatansever Leyla

  2. Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Kafkas University, Kars, Turkey

    Çelebi Özgür

  3. Department of Food Engineering, Faculty of Engineering Architecture, Kafkas University, Kars, Turkey

    Aksoy Aksem

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  1. Çiğdem Sezer
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  2. Çelebi Özgür
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  3. Aksoy Aksem
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  4. Vatansever Leyla
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Correspondence to Çiğdem Sezer.

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Sezer, Ç., Özgür, Ç., Aksem, A. et al. Food handlers: a bridge in the journey of enterotoxigenic MRSA in food. J. Verbr. Lebensm. 10, 123–129 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00003-015-0939-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00003-015-0939-7

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