Symposium on microbiology update: old friends and new enemies. Staphylococcus aureus.

The analytical methods for the detection of the staphylococcal enterotoxins can be divided into 2 categories: (1) methods for detection of enterotoxin-producing staphylococcal strains; (2) methods for detection of enterotoxin in foods. Gel diffusion methods (Ouchterlony, microslide), in which the enterotoxin produced by any given strain is compared to one of the identified enterotoxins, are used most frequently for strain testing. The sensitivity of these methods is from 0.1 to 0.5 micrograms enterotoxin/mL, which is normally adequate to determine the enterotoxigenicity of strains. The methods for the detection of enterotoxin in foods need to be much more sensitive to detect less than 1 ng of enterotoxin/g of food that may be present. The radioimmunoassay (RIA), the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and the reversed passive latex agglutination (RPLA) method have the necessary sensitivity to detect 1 ng/g of enterotoxin in foods without the use of complicated extraction-concentration procedures. Kits based on the ELISA and RPLA methods are now available commercially for the detection of enterotoxins in foods. Tests have shown that the ELISA methods are somewhat more sensitive than the RPLA method.