Search results for "Food poisoning"

An outbreak of food poisoning due to a genogroup I norovirus.

2005

Norovirus infection is associated with approximately 90% of epidemic non-bacterial acute gastroenteritis. The objective of this study is to describe an outbreak of norovirus genogroup I gastroenteritis which affected workers in a hospital and was attributed to food prepared by an infected food handler. Forty cases were detected, of whom 80% were interviewed. The index case was the cook employed in the hospital cafeteria. The following symptoms were observed: abdominal pain in 90·6%, vomiting in 71·9%, diarrhoea in 71·9%, general indisposition in 62·5%, headaches in 53·1% and fever in 32·4% of cases. The initial symptoms were abdominal pain in 37% and vomiting in 28%. Of the 14 samples analy…

rRNA probing of chromosomal DNA of epidemic and sporadic isolates of Salmonella enterica subsp. Enterica serovar kottbus from Northern and Southern I…

1990

Fifty-two strains of Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Kottbus, identified at the Centres of Enterobacteriaceae of Northern and Southern Italy, were investigated by molecular genetic methods. Thirteen isolates were recovered during two food-poisoning outbreaks that occurred in May 1987 in Lombardy. The rDNA gene restriction patterns, obtained by probing endonuclease cleaved chromosomal DNA with photobiotin labeled Escherichia coli rRNA, revealed some heterogeneity among strains isolated from Southern Italy, whereas Northern Italy isolates exhibited virtually identical banding patterns.

Staphylococcal food poisoning case and molecular analysis of toxin genes in Staphylococcus aureus strains isolated from food in Sicily, Italy.

2014

A case of staphylococcal food poisoning was observed in two individuals of the same family after consumption of primosale, a semiripened sheep cheese produced in Sicily. Staphylococcus aureus isolated from the cheese produced enterotoxin C (SEC) and carried both the enterotoxin C (sec) and the toxic shock syndrome toxin (tsst-1) gene. Following this case, an extensive survey was conducted on 971 food samples (raw milk, cheese, meat, and food preparations). S. aureus was detected in 102 of 971 food samples, from all types of food with the exception of ricotta cheese. The tsst-1 gene was present in 42% of the strains, either alone or in combination with other toxin genes. The enterotoxin C ge…

Rapid whole protein quantification of staphylococcal enterotoxin B by liquid chromatography

2012

Abstract Food poisoning caused by Staphylococcus aureus is one of the most important foodborne diseases in the world. The ability of these bacteria to produce one or more enterotoxins in milk and dairy products is linked to staphylococcal food poisoning. Enterotoxin B (SEB) is an exotoxin produced by S. aureus and is one of the compounds most frequently involved in staphylococcal food poisoning worldwide. In this work, 20 samples of milk collected from restaurants have been studied for the presence of S. aureus enterotoxigenic strains. All the isolates from milk samples have been analysed by liquid chromatography-coupled with diode array detector for the rapid identification and quantificat…

Enterotoxigenic staphylococci and their toxins in restaurant foods

2002

Abstract This review presents an overview of the enterotoxigenic staphylococci and their toxins in restaurant foods, with special reference to the characteristics of these micro-organisms and their enterotoxins. Furthermore, this paper reviews the staphylococcal food poisoning outbreaks, principal sources of contamination and food safety measures that can be applied to eliminate the presence of enterotoxigenic staphylococci in restaurant foods.

Food Processing and Foodborne Illness

2015

Food processing means manipulation of raw materials from plants or animals into food. Since agriculture and animal husbandry were established postharvest procedures were necessary to preserve for a longer time the increasing food supplies coming from the fields and domesticated animals. Food is one of the best culture medium for a lot of microorganisms and preventing food spoilage caused by enzymes and microorganisms is crucial. Deterioration of food is caused mainly by three natural processes: 1. Oxidation – vegetables after harvesting or meat after animal slaughtering get in contact with the oxygen in the air that makes them rancid and unpleasant. 2. Enzyme action – all food contains natu…

Outbreak of Salmonella Enteritidis gastrointestinal infections among medical staff due to contaminated food prepared outside the hospital

2001

Pheno-genotyping of Salmonella enterica serotype Enteritidis isolates identified in Sicily during a reemergence period.

2005

After an upward trend paralleling that occurring in most European countries, including Italy, since October 2002 Salmonella enterica serotype Enteritidis (S. Enteritidis) has again gained the first position among outbreak and sporadic human isolates of Salmonella in Sicily. Because phage typing of S. Enteritidis has many technical and epidemiological limitations and molecular methods have proved to be poorly discriminative for this organism, multiple typing, using phage typing together with pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and plasmid profiling on a sample of fifty human and poultry isolates identified during the period October 2002 to May 2003 in Sicily, was chosen as the most valua…

Rapid whole protein quantitation of staphylococcal enterotoxins A and B by liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry

2012

Abstract Staphylococcus aureus is an important pathogen and has been indicated as the fifth causative agent of food-borne human illness throughout the world. Staphylococcal enterotoxins (SEs) are toxic compounds excreted mainly by strains of S. aureus. Among these toxins, enterotoxins A (SEA) and B (SEB) are both of the most prevalent compounds in staphylococcal food poisoning. In this work, reverse phase liquid chromatography coupled to ESI mass spectrometry (LC–ESI/MS) has been applied for its rapid identification and quantification. Limit of detection (LOD) values were 0.5 and 0.2 ng for SEA and SEB, respectively and limit of quantification (LOQ) value was 1 ng for both enterotoxins. SEA…

Analysis of integrated virological and epidemiological reports of norovirus outbreaks collected within the Foodborne Viruses in Europe network from 1…

2008

ABSTRACT The Foodborne Viruses in Europe network has developed integrated epidemiological and virological outbreak reporting with aggregation and sharing of data through a joint database. We analyzed data from reported outbreaks of norovirus (NoV)-caused gastroenteritis from 13 European countries (July 2001 to July 2006) for trends in time and indications of different epidemiology of genotypes and variants. Of the 13 countries participating in this surveillance network, 11 were capable of collecting integrated epidemiological and virological surveillance data and 10 countries reported outbreaks throughout the entire period. Large differences in the numbers and rates of reported outbreaks pe…