Incidence of enterotoxigenic Staphylococcus aureus in some ready-to-eat meat sandwiches in Assuit city with special reference to methicillin resistant Staphylococuus aureus strains [electronic resource].

Includes references.

A total of 80 random samples of ready-to-eat meat sandwiches represented as 20 each of hawawshy, liver, kofta and shawarma that retailed from various fast food restaurants in Assiut city were examined for contamination with S. aureus and methicillin-resistant S. aureus in association with its enterotoxigenicity. S. aureus strains were recovered from 25, 45, 40 and 30% of the examined hawawshy, liver, kofta and shawarma samples, respectively. While, the average counts were 2.75 x10³ , 2.80 x10⁴ , 7.20 x10⁴ and 8.98 x10³ cfu/g of the examined samples, respectively. Whereas, MRSA strains were isolated from 15, 40, 35 and 25% of the same examined samples, respectively. Eight out of twelve strains of MRSA were isolated from liver (4 strains), shawarma (3 strains) and only one strain from kofta proved to be enterotoxigenic, while the strains isolated from hawawshy failed to produce any enterotoxins. All the 8 strains produced enterotoxins C, while, 3 strains isolated from shawarma produced CD, ACD and ABCDE enterotoxins, in addition the only strain isolated from kofta can produce CE enterotoxins. The results showed that enterotoxin C was the most frequently in all the examined ready-to-eat sandwiches, indicating that S. aureus had a potential public health significance in fast food.

Summary in Arabic.