Studies on Allergy-Like Food Poisoning with the Special Reference to the Histamine Formation by Escherichia Group Organisms.
1960 Volume 12 Issue 5 Pages 982-997
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1960 Volume 12 Issue 5 Pages 982-997
It is already well-known that the main causative agent of allergylike food poisoning is histamine. Proteus morganii and Psudomonas histamineum are notorious for their ability to form histamine from histidine. The author isolated a strain of gram-negative rod from fresh fish meat which utilized lactose and formed histamine from histidine. Studies on allergy-like food poisoning using this strain were carried out and the results are described herein.
1. The histamine producer isolated from cavalias belonged to coli-form group organism. Studies on cultural and physiological characteristics of the strain revealed that the organism resembled to Escherichia intermedia (Bergey's Manual,1957).
2. The strain formed 3.2 to 6.2 mg of histamine per ml in tuna extract. When the strain was inoculated in the fresh meat of cavalias, more than 3.2 mg per gr. of histamine was formed.
3. Histidine decarboxilase activity of the strain was rather stable. After 400 successive subcultures on nutrient agar, the ability of histamine formation of the strain did not decrease.
4. Tuna extract inoculated with this strain caused similar symptoms to human subjects as in the case of so-called allergy-like food poisoning. The results indicated the possibility of food-poisoning caused by this kind of organisms.
5. The distribution of histamine forming strains among naturally occuring Escherichia group organisms was investigated. Eighty nine strains (39.6%) out of 273 isolates formed histamine in cavalias extract. Among these histamine producers, twentyone proved to be an intermediate form by IMVIC system.13 strains (3.5%) also formed histamine in tuna extract, and 4 strains (9.3%) were found to belong to intermediate group. Histidine activity of these strains was weak and unstable, that is, the ability was readily lost on successive subcultures.
Above results show that the histamine producer isolated by the author might be able to cause allergy-like food poisoning in natural condition. High activity of histidine decarboxylase of the strain seems to warrant this strain as a new species among Escherichia coli group organisms, and the strain was tentatively named as E. intermedia n. sp. Yanagisawa et Hirose.
