Fatal family outbreak of Bacillus cereus-associated food poisoning

Abstract

Bacillus cereus is a well-known cause of food-borne illness, but infection with this organism is not commonly reported because of its usually mild symptoms. A fatal case due to liver failure after the consumption of pasta salad is described and demonstrates the possible severity of the emetic syndrome.

FIG. 1.

Cluster analysis of the (GTG)₅ fingerprints and toxin production of B. cereus isolates. As listed in the Isolate^a column, the following isolates have been deposited in the BCCM/LMG Bacteria Collection (Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium): 5975a (LMG 22728); 5965c (LMG 22729); 5972a (LMG 22730); 5969a (LMG 22731); 5958c (LMG 22732); 5964a (LMG 22733). Toxin titer^b column: emetic and enterotoxin titers detected on the basis of cytotoxicity assays. cer^c column: emetic toxin-specific marker detected in the PCR assay. The reference strain for emetic toxin production is identified with a superscript “d” suffix in the Isolate^a column. The reference strain for enterotoxin production is identified with a superscript “e” suffix. ND, not determined.

FIG. 2.

Representative PFGE patterns (A to D) of AscI (A)- and NotI (B)-digested genomic DNA of B. cereus isolates. M, yeast chromosome PFGE marker; m, lambda 48.5-kb size marker. The values on the left and right are molecular mass markers in kilobases.