Staphylococcus argenteus is a novel species of Staphylococcus aureus that is known to cause various human illnesses, including staphylococcal food poisoning. In an effort to understand the source of bacterial contamination in food poisoning cases, a recent study measured the prevalence of S. argenteus among Japan’s retail fresh food and poultry slaughterhouses.
Researchers from Osaka Prefecture University utilized polymerase chain reaction and whole genome sequencing (WGS) to identify bacterial genetic material in vegetables, fish, chicken, beef, and pork from retail stores. Among the 642 food samples examined, S. argenteus was found in only 13.9 percent (21 of 151) of chicken samples; no evidence of S. argenteus was found in pork, fish, beef, or vegetable samples. The researchers conducted multiple-locus sequence typing on the 21 identified isolates, which revealed four sequence types and 14 subtypes. All isolates of S. argenteus showed susceptibility to the antibiotic methicillin, and none of the isolates tested positive for the Panton-Valentine leukocidin gene, which is a toxin produced by certain types of S. aureus that can kill white blood cells and cause soft-tissue infections.