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Distribution of toxigenic Bacillus cereus in rice samples marketed in Hong Kong

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Abstract

Eleven of 16 samples of rice on sale in rice shops and supermarkets in Hong Kong contained Bacillus cereus. Although B. cereus counts did not exceed 100 bacteria/g in most of the positive samples, a sample of Thai red rice and a poor quality rice originating from China contained between 300 to 1000 cells/g and 104 to 2×105 cells/g, respectively. Nine strains produced an enterotoxin responsible for the diarrhoeal-type B. cereus food poisoning and seven of these strains also produced a haemolysin (haemolysin BL), a dermonecrotic vascular permeability factor which may be a virulence determinant in diarrhoeal illness caused by this bacterium.

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Authors
  1. P. K. Lee
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  2. J. A. Buswell
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  3. K. Shinagawa
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Additional information

P.K. Lee and J.A. Buswell are with the Department of Biology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong; K. Shinagawa is with the Department of Veterinary Medicine, Iwate University, Iwate, Japan.

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Lee, P.K., Buswell, J.A. & Shinagawa, K. Distribution of toxigenic Bacillus cereus in rice samples marketed in Hong Kong. World Journal of Microbiology & Biotechnology 11, 696–698 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00361024

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00361024

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