Abstract

The increasing emergence of multi-resistant bacteria in healthcare settings, in the community and in the environment represents a major health threat worldwide. In 2016, we started a pilot project to investigate antimicrobial resistance in surface water. Bacteria were enriched, cultivated on selective chromogenic media and species identification was carried out by MALDI-TOF analysis. From a river in southern Austria a methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) was isolated. Whole genome sequence analysis identified the isolate as ST8, spa type t008, SCCmecIV, PVL and ACME positive, which are main features of CA-MRSA USA300. Whole genome based cgMLST of the water isolate and comparison to 18 clinical MRSA USA300 isolates from the Austrian national reference laboratory for coagulase positive staphylococci originating from 2004, 2005 and 2016 and sequences of 146 USA300 isolates arbitrarily retrieved from the Sequence Read Archive revealed a close relatedness to a clinical isolate from Austria. The presence of a CA-MRSA USA300 isolate in an aquatic environment might pose a public health risk by serving as a potential source of infection or a source for emergence of new pathogenic MRSA clones.

Highlights

  • Methicillin resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) are the leading cause of nosocomial infections[1]

  • In this report we describe a detailed characterization of this USA300 methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolate and its phylogenetic relatedness to clinical community acquired MRSA (CA-MRSA) USA300 isolates

  • To assess relationship of the river water isolate W1 to clinical and food associated isolates, 18 clinical isolates from the Austrian national reference laboratory for coagulase positive staphylococci were characterized by Whole genome sequencing (WGS) and sequences of 146 arbitrarily chosen USA300 isolates were retrieved from the Sequence Read Archive (SRA)

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Summary

Introduction

Methicillin resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) are the leading cause of nosocomial infections[1]. CA-MRSA is epidemic in the United States mainly due to dissemination of the USA300 clone which belongs to multi locus sequence type (MLST) 8/SCCmec IV and harbours the lukS-lukF genes, encoding the Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) and the arginine catabolic mobile element (ACME) cluster[7]. While virulence of these strains enhances dissemination, the potential to acquire resistance to multiple antibiotic classes hinders treatment of MRSA infections[1]. In this report we describe a detailed characterization of this USA300 MRSA isolate and its phylogenetic relatedness to clinical CA-MRSA USA300 isolates

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