A Foodborne Outbreak of Staphylococcus aureus Associated with Fried Chicken in Republic of Korea

Ji-Yeon  Hyeon; Gyung-Tae  Chung; Sun-Hye  Bing; Kyung-Sook  Kwon; Hyeon-Hee  Lee; Soo-Jin  Kim; Se-Eun  Jeon; Yeon-Ho  Kang  and Junyoung   Kim

doi:10.4014/jmb.1210.10022

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Food Microbiology and Biotechnology

A Foodborne Outbreak of Staphylococcus aureus Associated with Fried Chicken in Republic of Korea

Ji-Yeon Hyeon ¹, Gyung-Tae Chung ¹, Sun-Hye Bing ², Kyung-Sook Kwon ², Hyeon-Hee Lee ³, Soo-Jin Kim ¹, Se-Eun Jeon ¹, Yeon-Ho Kang ¹ and Junyoung Kim ^1*

¹Division of Enteric Diseases, Center for Infectious Diseases, Korea National Institute of Health, Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 187, Osong-eup, Cheongwon-gun, Chungbuk-do, 363-951, Republic of Korea , ²Division of Infectious Disease, Research Institute of Public Health and Environment, 100, Dunsan-ro, Seo-gu, Daejon, 302-789, Republic of Korea, ³Seo-gu Daejon Health Center, 74, Mannyeon-ro, Seo-gu, Daejon, 302-150, Republic of Korea

Received: October 10, 2012; Accepted: October 18, 2012

J. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 2013; 23(1): 85-87

Published January 28, 2013 https://doi.org/10.4014/jmb.1210.10022

Abstract

An outbreak of Staphylococcus aureus infections occurred in a university with an enrollment of 80 students in the city of Daejon, Republic of Korea. All nine S. aureus isolates from patients (n = 7), staff members (n = 1), and the fried chicken served as the lunch (n = 1) harbored the enterotoxin A gene and showed an identical antibioticresistant profile, PFGE banding pattern (STAS16.001), and sequence type, ST 6. These results suggested that the outbreak was associated with eating the fried chicken that had been handled by an infected staff member. This case report demonstrated a practical approach to identifying the source and transmission of an infection.

Keywords

Staphylococcus aureus, outbreak, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), multilocus sequence typing (MLST)

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