Enterotoxigenic strain of Staphylococcus aureus causing food-borne outbreak in a private context

In the last European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) report on zoonoses a total of 5262 food- borne outbreaks (FBOs) have been reported in Europe in 2010. Staphylococcal FBOs are caused by consuming food contaminated with one or more preformed enterotoxins and are characterised by rapid onset of symptoms. In May 2012, an Italian family made up of five people was involved in a FBO: food sample of arancini (fried rice balls) were analysed and resulted positive for coagulase positive staphylococci (CPS) (>100,000 cfu/g) and for staphylococcal enterotoxins (SE) (types A and C). Laboratory analyses also led to the isolation of Staphylococcus aureus strain carrying the gene encoding for enterotoxin type A and belonging to the human biotype. The FBO described in this paper should be included in the next official FBO report as a strong evidence case: food and toxins responsible for symptoms and enterotoxigenic S. aureus strain were identified and the clinical symptoms matched with the final diagnosis.