Bacillus cereus-induced food-borne outbreaks in France, 2007 to 2014: epidemiology and genetic characterisation

Abstract

The aim of this study was to identify and characterise Bacillus cereus from a unique national collection of 564 strains associated with 140 strong-evidence food-borne outbreaks (FBOs) occurring in France during 2007 to 2014. Starchy food and vegetables were the most frequent food vehicles identified; 747 of 911 human cases occurred in institutional catering contexts. Incubation period was significantly shorter for emetic strains compared with diarrhoeal strains A sub-panel of 149 strains strictly associated to 74 FBOs and selected on Coliphage M13-PCR pattern, was studied for detection of the genes encoding cereulide, diarrhoeic toxins (Nhe, Hbl, CytK1 and CytK2) and haemolysin (HlyII), as well as panC phylogenetic classification. This clustered the strains into 12 genetic signatures (GSs) highlighting the virulence potential of each strain. GS1 (nhe genes only) and GS2 (nhe, hbl and cytK2), were the most prevalent GS and may have a large impact on human health as they were present in 28% and 31% of FBOs, respectively. Our study provides a convenient molecular scheme for characterisation of B. cereus strains responsible for FBOs in order to improve the monitoring and investigation of B. cereus-induced FBOs, assess emerging clusters and diversity of strains.

Intraclade Variability in Toxin Production and Cytotoxicity of Bacillus cereus Group Type Strains and Dairy-Associated Isolates

“…thuringiensis ) and VII ( B. cytotoxicus ) may have the ability to cause foodborne illness. This is consistent with a recent study that reported that strains from multiple B. cereus group clades have been previously implicated as the causative agent in foodborne outbreaks ( 66 ). Among the isolates characterized here, all clade VI isolates were capable of growing at 6°C, but none of these isolates were cytotoxic in tissue culture when grown at 37°C.…”

A Study on Prevalence and Characterization of Bacillus cereus in Ready-to-Eat Foods in China

“…The most common enterotoxin-encoding genes in the B. cereus strains we identified were the nhe and entFM, consistent with previous reports (Kim et al, 2010;Chon et al, 2015;Hwang and Park, 2015;Glasset et al, 2016;Gao et al, 2018;Yu et al, 2019). CytK is a cytotoxin isolated from a B. cereus strain that caused a severe food poisoning outbreak leading to three deaths in France (Lund et al, 2000).…”

“…B. cereus can cause food poisoning even at very low doses, with more than 10 3 B. cereus g −1 considered unsafe for consumption (Granum and Lund, 1997). Despite safety precautions, numerous food poisoning incidents caused by B. cereus have been reported recently in Spain (Doménech-Sánchez et al, 2011), Belgium (Delbrassinne et al, 2015), Argentina (Lopez et al, 2015), Australia (Sloan-Gardner et al, 2014), England (Nicholls et al, 2016), Austria (Schmid et al, 2016), and France (Glasset et al, 2016).…”

El género Bacillus como agente de control biológico y sus implicaciones en la bioseguridad agrícola

“…B. weihenstephanensis, some strains have been identified as pathogens for humans (Ceuppens et al, 2013;. Among these, B. cereus has been identified in a large diversity of foods (dairy products, fresh vegetables and others), causing important worldwide epidemiological crises, and in some cases, even death by emetic and diarrheal infections (Oh et al, 2012;Glasset et al, 2016). Also, B. thuringiensis strains have recently been related to intoxications caused by the ingestion of contaminated foods (Oh et al, 2012).…”

“…Entre éstos, B. cereus se ha identificado en una gran diversidad de alimentos (productos lácticos, vegetales frescos, entre otros), provocando crisis epidemiológicas importantes a nivel mundial, y en algunos casos hasta la muerte, debido a infecciones eméticas y diarreicas (Oh et al, 2012;Glasset et al, 2016). Además, recientemente, cepas de B. thuringiensis han sido asociados a intoxicaciones por el consumo de alimentos contaminados (Oh et al, 2012).…”