DETECTION OF ENTEROTOXINS OF Staphylococcus aureus IN MILK AND LOCOLLY SOFT CHEESES IN BAGHDAD CITY

Abstract

This study aimed to detect of contamination of milk and local soft cheese with Staphylococcus aureus and their enterotoxins with attempt to detect the enterotoxin genes in some isolates of this bacteria. A total of 120 samples, 76 of raw milk and 44 of soft cheese were collected from different markets of Baghdad city. Enterotoxins in these samples were detected by VIDAS Set 2 system and it was found that enterotoxin A is present in a rate of 44.74% in milk samples and in a rate 54.50% in cheese samples. While other enterotoxins B, C, D, E were not found in any rate in any samples. Through the study 60 isolates obtained from milk and cheeses were identified as Staphylococcus aureus by cultural, morphological and biochemical test by using API Staph Kits. These isolates were subjected to find out which of the genes of classical enterotoxins A, B, C, D, and E were they harbored using Multiplex PCR assay. It was revealed that 23 isolates have one or more of these genes and the gene of enterotoxin A is more distributed among these isolates in a frequency of 82.60%.