[Demonstration of enterotoxin in Staphylococcus aureus cultures by the ELISA test and the microslide test]

340 S. aureus strains, isolated either from routine food test samples, or from food leftovers, from healthy or sick persons in cases of suspected food poisoning in various places of the Federal Republic of Germany, were tested for enterotoxin production. The enterotoxin types A, B and C (SEA, SEB and SEC) were determined both by the ELISA and the microslide test (MS-test), the enterotoxin types D and E by the MS-test only. Comparison of the two test methods clearly shows that the ELISA technique is superior to the MS method: The sensitivity of the ELISA was at 2.5 ng, whereas that of the MS-test was limited to approximately 1 microgram. The ELISA revealed 6.2% more of the strains as enterotoxin producers, and reproducibility of the test results was also better with the ELISA than with the MS-test. Furthermore, the ELISA is far more efficient, consuming less test reagents, and with a capacity for testing more strains in a shorter time procedure. The incidence rate of the various enterotoxin types, referred to one representative strain each per outbreak of food poisoning or group of persons investigated, is as follows: 45.3% SEA, 17.2% SEB, 23.4% SEC. The incidence rate of SED, SEE or SE-type combinations was less than 5%. In sick persons, SEA- and SEC-producing strains occurred within the same range, i.e. 34.8% and 30.4% respectively. SEA-producing S. aureus strains had the highest frequency in food samples (61.5%) and in healthy individuals (53.6%).