Artigo Acesso aberto Produção Nacional Revisado por pares

An outbreak of staphylococcal food poisoning in the Municipality of Passos, MG, Brazil

2003; Instituto de Tecnologia do Paraná (Tecpar); Volume: 46; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1590/s1516-89132003000400012

ISSN

1678-4324

Autores

Luiz Simeão do Carmo, Ricardo Souza Dias, Valter R. Linardi, Maria José de Sena, Deise Aparecida dos Santos,

Tópico(s)

Food Safety and Hygiene

Resumo

An outbreak of staphylococcal food poisoning involving 42 people who had eaten a meal at a restaurant in the Municipality of Passos, Minas Gerais, Brazil, is reported. Thirty-one of the individuals became ill with vomiting, diarrhea and dizziness within 30 minutes after eating the meal. The foods suspected were: chicken pancake, rice, beans, tomato sauce and mashed chick-peas. Large numbers (> 2.0x10(8) CFU/g) of enterotoxigenic staphylococci were present in the chicken pancake. These strains produced enterotoxins A, B and D. Swabs from the nasal cavity and throat and from under the fingernails of food handlers were cultured for the detection of enterotoxigenic staphylococci carriers. Four out of five of them were healthy carriers of enterotoxin A, B, C and D producing Staphylococcus aureus at the sites cultured and one of them was also a nasal carrier of TSST-1 toxin producing S. aureus. These results indicate that the food handlers would have been the source of the food contamination.

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