Abstract
In this work, 85 strains of Staphylococcus aureus were isolated from samples taken from slaughter poultry in Poland. Attempts were made to determine the prophage profile of the strains and to investigate the presence in their genome of genes responsible for the production of five classical enterotoxins (A–E), toxic shock syndrome toxin (TSST-1), exfoliative toxins (ETA and ETB) and staphylokinase (SAK). For this purpose, multiplex PCR was performed using primer-specific pairs for targeted genes. The presence of the mecA gene was found in 26 strains (30.6%). The genomes of one of the methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) strains and two methicillin-sensitive S. aureus (MSSA) strains contained the gene responsible for the production of enterotoxin A. Only one MRSA strain and two MSSA strains showed the presence of the toxic shock syndrome toxin (tst) gene. Only one of the MSSA strains had the gene (eta) responsible for the production of exfoliative toxins A. The presence of the staphylokinase gene (sak) was confirmed in 13 MRSA strains and in 5 MSSA strains. The study results indicated a high prevalence of prophages among the test isolates of Staphylococcus aureus. In all, 15 prophage patterns were observed among the isolates. The presence of 77-like prophages incorporated into bacterial genome was especially often demonstrated. Various authors emphasize the special role of these prophages in the spread of virulence factors (staphylokinase, enterotoxin A) not only within strains of the same species but also between species and even types of bacteria.
Highlights
Staphylococcus aureus has the ability to induce severe diseases of animals and humans, that are associated with numerous virulence factors produced by these bacteria, such as toxins, cell adhesins and secreted exoproteins [1,2,3,4,5]
The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of methicillin-resistant (MRSA) and methicillinsensitive S. aureus (MSSA) in samples taken from chicken and turkey broilers in Poland, and the associations between the methicillin resistance of S. aureus strains isolated from poultry, their toxin gene profiles and their ability to produce staphylokinase
We confirmed the presence of 30,6% positive strains of MRSA in food production animals, which as livestock are in close contact with humans
Summary
Staphylococcus aureus has the ability to induce severe diseases of animals and humans, that are associated with numerous virulence factors produced by these bacteria, such as toxins, cell adhesins and secreted exoproteins (coagulase, toxic shock syndrome toxin-1, staphylokinase and others) [1,2,3,4,5]. Staphylokinase (SAK) a protein produced by certain S. aureus strains is a fibrin-specific activator of human plasminogen. The ability of S. aureus strains to produce staphylokinase can be exploited to trace the ecological origin of a strain. It has been observed that S. aureus strains of human biotype can produce enterotoxins much more frequently than strains of animal biotypes. Some researchers claim that strains derived from poultry are capable of producing this protein [3]
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