A quantitative study of enterotoxin production by sheep milk staphylococci

Of 124 staphylococcal strains isolated from sheep milk, 78 produced enterotoxin A, B, C, or D when evaluated by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Enterotoxins A and D, elaborated by 44 and 43 strains, respectively, showed the highest incidence. Enterotoxin production by coagulase-negative strains (one Staphylococcus cohnii, three S. epidermidis, five S. haemolyticus, and four S. xylosus) was detected. Linear and logarithmic-logarithmic regressions of optical density on enterotoxin concentration yielded the best-fitting equations for enterotoxin quantitation. A significantly higher incidence of enterotoxin producers and significantly higher levels of enterotoxins produced were recorded for coagulase-positive, thermostable nuclease-positive, hemolysis-positive, or mannitol-positive strains. Mannitol utilization was the best test for discriminating between enterotoxigenic and nonenterotoxigenic staphylococci.

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Bautista, L., Gaya, P., Medina, M., Nuñez, M.
Format: journal article biblioteca
Language:eng
Published: 1988
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12792/3096
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