Abstract
Milk samples from 251 nursing mothers were screened for enterotoxigenic staphylococci. The incidence of staphylococci in milk samples was 71.3%. Two hundred and sixteen strains were isolated from 179 mothers. Eighty-six (39.8%) of the 216 strains were found to be toxigenic. Enterotoxin type A (SEA) predominated, with 41 strains (19.0%) elaborating it. Twenty-one strains (9.7%) produced enterotoxin B (SEB) while only eight (3.7%) produced enterotoxin C (SEC). Ten strains (4.6%) produced all three types. Enterotoxigenic strains usually produced coagulase, thermonuclease and alpha haemolysin. In this series breast-feeding alone was more common than combined breast and bottle feeding, especially among mothers less than 30 years old. The incidence of reported infantile diarrhoea decreased with increasing age of the mother. Of 16 babies with diarrhoea, 10 (62.5%) had mothers whose milk yielded staphylococci. Six of these were toxigenic. Although no direct relationship between enterotoxigenic staphylococci in the milk of nursing mothers and infantile diarrhoea could be demonstrated, these findings reveal a potential health risk to these infants.