Abstract
A highly sensitive, indirect double sandwich fluorogenic enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (FELISA), has been developed for the detection of staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB). The described FELISA allows a SEB quantification of 0.1 fg/ml for purified toxin and a detection limit of at least 10 pg/g of contaminated food. Given the sensitivity of FELISA elaborate procedures for the extraction and concentration of enterotoxin from food samples became unnecessary. The monoclonal anti-SEB antibody (MCA a-SEB) used in the described method reacted with SEB only. The FELISA is simple to perform and, provided the reaction plates are pre-prepared, the results can be obtained in approximately 3 h.