High prevalence of methicillin resistant and enterotoxin gene-positive Staphylococcus aureus among nasally colonized food handlers in central Iran

This study defined the prevalence of enterotoxin gene-positiveStaphylococcus aureus strains among food handlers and non-food processing healthy nasalS.aureus carriers in central Iran. Meticillin-resistantS.aureus (MRSA) strains were diagnosed by cefoxitin disk diffusion. PCR was used to detect themecA,Sa442, and enterotoxin genes. Out of the 1113 food handlers, 224 (20.1%) were nasal carriers ofS.aureus and 157 (70.1%) of these isolates were positive for one or more enterotoxin genes. The most prevalent enterotoxin gene wassei (40.2%), followed byseg (35.3%),sea (23.5%),seb (15.2%),sec (5.5%), andseh (2.7%).See andsed genes were not found. Sixty seven (42.7%) of enterotoxin gene-positive isolates possessed a single enterotoxin gene, and 64 (40.8%), 23 (14.7%), and 3 (1.9%) contained two, three, or four enterotoxin genes, respectively. The most frequently detected gene combination wassei/seg (n = 35, 22.3%). Thirty seven (16.5%) isolates were diagnosed as MRSA, and 27 (73%) of these strains were positive for at least one enterotoxin gene. Out of 546 healthy controls, 100 individuals were identified asS.aureus nasal carriers; among the strains, 39 (39%) were positive for at least one enterotoxin gene. Only one (1%) CA-MRSA was identified among the strains from the volunteers. A high prevalence of meticillin resistant and enterotoxin-positiveS.aureus were documented in food handlers. We suggest that this may be due to the frequent handling of contaminated foodstuffs and that...
Source: European Journal of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases - Category: Microbiology Source Type: research