VIRULENCE MARKERS OF GRAM-NEGATIVE BACTERIA OF FOOD HYGIENIC RELEVANCE

The differentiation between virulent and avirulent isolates of opportunistic pathogenic bacteria strains has a great importance for the evaluation of foods but also for the explanation of food infections and intoxications. For the substitution of difficult and expensive virulence tests serving the direct detection of especially gram-negative bacteria internationally more and more it is searched for simple screening methods. Such methods are directed at the presence of virulence-associated properties (virulence markers). Autoagglutination, haemagglutination, serum resistance, congo red adsorption par example are suited for the estimation of a possible pathogenic power of different gram-negative bacteria.