Bacillus cereus, the causative agent of an emetic type of food-borne illness

Bacillus cereus is the causative agent of two distinct forms of gastroenteritic disease connected to food‐poisoning. It produces one emesis‐causing toxin and three enterotoxins that elicit diarrhea. Due to changing lifestyles and eating habits, B. cereus is responsible for an increasing number of fo...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Molecular nutrition & food research 2004-12, Vol.48 (7), p.479-487
Main Authors: Ehling-Schulz, Monika, Fricker, Martina, Scherer, Siegfried
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bacillus cereus
Bacillus cereus - genetics
Bacillus cereus - isolation & purification
Bacterial Toxins
Base Sequence
Cereulide
Depsipeptides - chemistry
Depsipeptides - genetics
Diarrhea - microbiology
DNA, Bacterial - chemistry
Emetic toxin
Enterotoxins
Food-poisoning
Foodborne Diseases - microbiology
Humans
Molecular Sequence Data
Review
Vomiting - microbiology
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Bacillus cereus is the causative agent of two distinct forms of gastroenteritic disease connected to food‐poisoning. It produces one emesis‐causing toxin and three enterotoxins that elicit diarrhea. Due to changing lifestyles and eating habits, B. cereus is responsible for an increasing number of food‐borne diseases in the industrial world. In the past, most studies concentrated on the diarrhoeal type of food‐borne disease, while less attention has been given to the emetic type of the disease. The toxins involved in the diarrhoeal syndrome are well‐known and detection methods are commercially available, whereas diagnostic methods for the emetic type of disease have been limited. Only recently, progress has been made in developing identification methods for emetic B. cereus and its corresponding toxin. We will summarize the data available for the emetic type of the disease and discuss some new insights in emetic strain characteristics, diagnosis, and toxin synthesis.
ISSN:1613-4125
1613-4133
DOI:10.1002/mnfr.200400055