detection of staphylococcus aureus enterotoxin a (sea) using dot-elisa in milk samples

Introduction: staphylococcus aureus enterotoxin a (sea) is one of the most common causes of staphylococcal food poisoning. due to the simplicity and no requirement for laboratory apparatuses, dotelisa is a choice method for detecting staphylococcal enterotoxins. the present study aimed to develop a dotelisa for the detection of sea. methods: nitrocellulose membranes were coated with the sea antibody and blocked by the addition of 3% bovine serum albumin (bsa) blocking buffer. after 1 h incubation and washing the membranes, milk samples and the positive control (sea, 50 ng/ml) were added to the membranes and incubated for 1 h. the membranes were then washed and incubated for 45 min with hrpconjugated sea, followed by the addition of tmb. results: our dotelisa could detect amounts of ge; 50 ng/ml of sea in the milk samples. of the 30 raw milk samples randomly purchased from dairy product stores in district 3, tehran, 5 (16%) contained sea ge; 50 ng/ml by the dotelisa. conclusion: the dotelisa showed to be a reliable method for the preliminary screening of milk samples for sea contamination. this method is costeffective, fast, and does not require an elisareader device.