Enterotoxin production, phage typing and serotyping of Staphylococcus aureus strains isolated from clinical materials and food.

The production of enterotoxins A, B, C and F by strains of Staphylococcus aureus isolated from various clinical sources and from isolates implicated in food poisoning was investigated. One hundred and ninety one of the 374 clinical strains (51.1%) were found to be enterotoxigenic; of these, 81 (27.7%) strains produced enterotoxin A, 57 (15.3%) strains produced enterotoxin B, 23 (6.2%) strains produced enterotoxin C, and 64 (17.1%) strains produced enterotoxin F. These enterotoxigenic strains were most frequently lysed by phages of group III (21.5%) or were not typable (22%). Eighteen of the 29 strains implicated in food poisoning were enterotoxigenic. The correlation of antigens and bacteriophage patterns with enterotoxigenicity was determined: enterotoxin A being related to a4 antigen, enterotoxin B to phages of 94/96 complex with c1, o antigens, and enterotoxin F to phages of group I with 2632, k1k2, m antigens.