Epidemiological analysis of Staphylococcus aureus strains from nasal carriers in a teaching hospital

The present study was conducted to assess the epidemiological relation of Staphylococcus aureus isolates from nasal carriers of hospital staff. Nasal swabs were taken from each of 327 personnel. After culturing on blood agar for overnight, probable staphylococcal isolates were identified and subjected to tube coagulase test. After a two-week interval, second nasal swabs were taken from the subjects whose first cultures were positive for S. aureus. Nasal carriage was defined in 58 (17.7%) personnel with positive culture for both sampling time. Antibiogram typing and arbitrarily-primed polymerase chain reaction (AP-PCR) with M13 primer were used for typing of the strains. Antibiotyping distinguished seven types and three subtypes, and 85% of the isolates were clustered in one group. AP-PCR, in contrast, identified 12 distinct patterns with 13 variants. A specific profile was not found among the isolates obtained from the personnel in a particular clinic. These results indicate that antibiotyping has poor discrimination power and heterogeneity among the nasal S. aureus strains in the hospital personnel screened is high.     

Clonal replacement of epidemic methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus strains in a German university hospital over a period of eleven years

Worldwide, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) pose an increased risk for healthcare- and community-associated infections. Since the first report of MRSA in England in 1961, several distinct clones or strains have emerged. Changes within the MRSA population of whole countries, small regions or of single hospitals have been observed with some clones replacing others. In this study, the clonal replacement of MRSA isolates in a South-eastern German tertiary care hospital between 2000 and 2010 is described based on microarray analyses of 778 isolates and at least 50 MRSA per year. Within these eleven years, four common epidemic strains, CC22-MRSA-IV, CC45-MRSA-IV, CC5/ST228-MRSA-I (including a variant with a truncated SCCmec element) and CC5-MRSA-II were identified. The PVL-negative CC22-MRSA-IV strain (Barnim Epidemic Strain, UK-EMRSA-15) was detected for the first time in 2001 and its abundance increased since then to 58.6% in 2010. CC5-MRSA-II increased from 2% (2000) to about 30% (2003), and since then it fluctuates between 23 and 37% of isolates. CC5/ST228-MRSA-I decreased from about the half of tested isolates (2000) to 2.3% (2010). A similar trend was observed for CC45-MRSA-IV, which decreased drastically down to 3.4% in 2010 after reaching a maximum of 62.0% in 2002. Seventeen other PVL-negative MRSA strains were identified sporadically with no significant trend being observed. Seven PVL-positive MRSA strains were found, but they remained rare during the study period accounting together for 2.7% of isolates.     

Naturally occurring drug resistance plasmids in hospital strains of Staphylococcus aureus

A genetic analysis of multiply inorganic salts and antibiotic--resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus was performed. Experiments designed to show reversion of organisms to antibiotic and inorganic salt susceptibility, as well as studies on the influence of ultraviolet irradiation of phage on the transduction frequencies of the resistance markers, indicated that determinants of chloramphenicol, tetracycline, aminoglycoside antibiotics, inorganic salts, and penicillin resistance in hospital strain are present on separate plasmids. Transduced by us plasmids pN742 and pN794 determined resistance to neomycin, kanamycin, paromomycin, lividomycin and streptomycin.     

The characteristic of Staphylococcus aureus strains isolated from food's samples

The study was carried out of 22 isolates of S. aureus isolated from 7 different incriminated food's samples from foodborne-disease outbreaks. The possibility of these isolates to producing of enterotoxins by commercial test SET-RPLA (Oxoid) was tested. The genotyping of these isolates was done by pulse-filed gel electrophoresis, acc. to Pfaller in own modification. On the basis of the DNA restriction patterns of the 22 isolates--5 strains were singled out, one of these strains--strain V (isolat nr 7) was not relationship to others. It was found that this strain V was one enterotoxin produced. Additionaly, all tested strains, in spite of the strain nr V, were isolated from the 2 or 3 samples of different kinds of foods. In the present study it has been shown too, that several similar colonies should be isolated for farther studies to assess microbiological contamination of the food products properly.     

Genotyping of Staphylococcus aureus strains isolated from healthy persistent carriers

The paper presents results on the relatedness of Staphylococcus aureus strains colonizing the upper respiratory tract isolated from healthy persistent carriers. Genotyping was carried out using two methods—multiple-locus variable-number tandem-repeat fingerprinting (MLVF) and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). By comparison of the results obtained by both methods, good correlations between MLVF and PFGE genotyping of strains isolated from the asymptomatic carriers were observed. Further studies are needed to evaluate methods useful for genotyping of S. aureus strains circulating in the community.     

The molecular characteristic of Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis strains isolated from clinical sources

The aim of study was the molecular characteristic of S. aureus and S. epidermidis isolates obtained from skin surface, wounds, deep tissues of hospitalized patients and from skin surface of non-hospitalized patients. Genes encoding virulence factors were examined using PCR reaction and specific primers. Genes encoding adhesinsfnbA and cna and gene eta for epidermolytic toxin were mostly present in S. aureus isolates coming from wounds and deep tissues compared to these from skin surface. Gene atlE encoding autolysin of S. epidermidis was detected in all studied isolates, whereas gene icaAB was present in almost all isolates. Comparison of results obtained by PCR and conventional method of the resistance to methicillin estimation showed discrepances suggesting the need for using of both methods in some clinically difficult cases of S. aureus infection.     

Antimicrobial substances produced by Staphylococcus aureus strains isolated from cattle in Brazil

Among 46 isolates of Staphylococcus aureus obtained from cattle in the State of Paraíba, Brazil, four were shown to produce antimicrobial substances (AMS). The two best AMS producers carried single plasmids of about 8·0 kbp and 50 kbp, respectively, which were designated pRJ34 and pRJ35. Curing experiments and molecular analysis associated the AMS production with the presence of these plasmids in the cells. The biochemical properties exhibited by the AMS suggested that they might be bacteriocins (Bac). The bacteriocin encoded by pRJ34 showed properties identical to those of the bacteriocins encoded by other small staphylococcal Bac plasmids. However, the bacteriocin encoded by the large plasmid pRJ35 has shown some properties which distinguish it from the other bacteriocins of Staph. aureus described so far, suggesting it may be a new member of the staphylococcal bacteriocin family.     

VISA and hetero-VISA among Staphylococcus aureus strains isolated from clinical cases

The VISA (vancomycin intermediate Staphylococcus aureus) and hetero-VISA strains were found among all isolates of S. aureus obtained in the years 1997-2000. The frequency of VISA was 0.3% and h-VISA was about 3%. Most but not all of the h-VISA and all VISA strains were methicillin resistant. Moreover the usefulness of different methods enabling recognition of the h-VISA strains was compared.     

Chlorine resistance of strains of Staphylococcus aureus isolated from poultry processing plants

Strains of Staphylococcus aureus which colonize defeathering machinery and become endemic within poultry processing plants appear to be resistant to the normal cleaning and disinfection processes. The resistance of endemic strains to chlorine was compared with that of isolates from the natural skin flora of poultry. Endemic strains were almost eight times more resistant and this was due primarily to their ability to grow in macroclumps but also to the production of an extracellular slime layer.     

Antibiotic resistance of Staphylococcus aureus strains isolated in two different Warsaw hospitals]

S. aureus strains isolated in the same period from different specimens obtained from patients of two different hospitals were compared. The significant differences were observed in the frequency of resistance determinants between strains of these hospitals. The most important was the difference in the prevalence of MRSA. In the first hospital the percentage of MRSA was 40% whereas in the second one only 20%. The resistance to the other antibiotics was also compared, and independently from the compared group: MRSA, MSSA or all, the prevalence of resistance determinants was higher in the first hospital than in the second. Although the frequencies of MRSA in both investigated hospitals were relatively high comparing to the other European countries and in the first hospital even alarming, isolated MRSA strains are less resistant to other antibiotics than MRSA in other countries.     

Occurrence of Staphylococcus aureus enterotoxigenic strains isolated from pregnant women with pathology

137 S. aureus strains, isolated from the larynx of pregnant women in cases of pathology, were studied for the formation of staphylococcal enterotoxins of types A and B (SEA and SEB) by the indirect hemagglutination test. The study revealed that SEA was produced by 35.0% and SEB, by 56.6% of the strains under study. The proportion of SEA and SEB producers among staphylococci isolated from mothers and children was, respectively, 18.4% and 20.0%, 89.41% and 67.5%. The number of enterotoxigenic staphylococci in the upper respiratory tract of newborn infants and mothers practically coincided with that in mothers. The occurrence of SEA- and SEB-producing enterotoxigenic strains in the medical personnel was 25.5% and 62.7% respectively.     

Antagonistic activity as 1 of the properties of hospital strains of Staphylococcus aureus

The frequency of antagonistic activity in S. aureus strains depended on the source from which the strains had been isolated. Antagonistic strains were most frequently detected in the departments of traumatology and orthopedy, as well as in the departments of routine and urgent surgery.     

Detection of low-enterotoxin-producing Staphylococcus aureus strains

Culture supernatant fluids from 26 (23.6%) monkey feeding test-positive Staphylococcus aureus strains, negative for enterotoxins by gel diffusion, were positive by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for one or more of the identified enterotoxins. Staphylococcal enterotoxin D (SED) was produced by 23 (88.5%) strains, SED and SEA were produced in two strains, and SED and SEC were produced in one strain. One strain produced only SEA, and two strains produced only SEC.     

Characterization of hemolytic activity of Staphylococcus aureus strains isolated from bovine mastitic milk

Beta (beta) and delta (delta)-hemolysin of Staphylococcus aureus strains were cultured in vitro in milk lactoserum (whey) prepared from both healthy and mastitis bovine milk. Production of beta- and delta-hemolysins were detected in 12 out of 50 strains studied. The association between N-acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminidase (NAGase) activity, plasmin activity (PL) and trypsin inhibitory capacity (TIC), known as inflammatory indicators for mastitis, and hemolytic activity were also studied. Mastitic milk decreased directly the lytic effect of both beta-and delta-hemolysins of S. aureus on hemolytical blood agar plates. S. aureus in healthy milk samples produced more beta-hemolysin (3 times) and delta-hemolysin (2 times) when compared to S. aureus supernatants in milk from infected quarters. Furthermore, beta- and delta-hemolysis correlated negatively with TIC and NAGase and PL activities. Addition of reduced glutathione (GSH) or beta-mercaptoethanol into the artificial medium enhanced hemolysins activity.