Jong Hyun Kim1, Eun Gyoung Lim2, Hyun Chul Jang1, Ju Young Park2, Sun Jin Lee1, Mi Sun Park1, Gil Bae Choi2, Bok Kwon Lee1
1Division of Enteric Bacterial Infections, Center for Infectious Diseases, National Institute of Health, Seoul, 2Microbe Division, Ulsan Institute of Health and Environment, Ulsan, Korea
Bacillus cereus causes two types of gastrointestinal diseases: emesis and diarrhea. It produces one emetic toxin and nine different enterotoxins. In March 2008, eight of a family became sick after eating slices of raw fish. We isolated emetic toxin producing B. cereus from the stools of 6 patients and 2 subclincal humans. In this study, the presence of enterotoxin genes, such as those of haemolysin BL (Hbl), nonhemolytic enterotoxin (Nhe), B. cereus enterotoxin T (BceT), enterotoxin FM (EntFM), cytotoxin K (cytK) and cereulide were assayed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methods. Their enterotoxin activities were assayed using the BCET- RPLA, Tecra ELISA kit and Hep-2 vacuole activity. Bacterial isolates were subtyped by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). This study demonstrates the emetic toxin-producing stains of B. cereus in clinical specimens, for the first time in the Republic of Korea. (Korean J Clin Microbiol 2009;12:48-52)