Methicillin- and Vancomycin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus From Humans and Ready-To-Eat Meat: Characterization of Antimicrobial Resistance and Biofilm Formation Ability.

Taisir Saber,Eman Ariny,Rasha M El-Mekkawy,Ahmed Askora,Sawasn H Abdelatif,Abdallah M A Merwad,Yasmine H Tartor,Mohamed Samir,Sara Ramadan El-Sayed,Gamal Enan

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2021.735494

Taisir Saber, Eman Ariny + Show 8 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2021.735494

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Journal: Frontiers in Microbiology	Publication Date: Feb 8, 2022
Citations: 23	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Zagazig University, Taif University

Abstract

Methicillin-resistant and vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA and VRSA) are zoonotic life-threatening pathogens, and their presence in food raises a public health concern. Yet, scarce data are available regarding MRSA and VRSA in both ready-to-eat (RTE) meat and food handlers. This study was undertaken to determine the frequency, antimicrobial resistance, and biofilm-forming ability of MRSA and VRSA isolated from RTE meat (shawarma and burger) and humans (food handlers, and hospitalized patients) in Zagazig city, Sharkia Governorate, Egypt. We analyzed 176 samples (112 human samples: 72 from hospitalized patients and 40 from food handlers, 64 RTE meat samples: 38 from shawarma and 26 from burger). Using phenotypic, PCR-based identification of nuc gene and matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS), 60 coagulase-positive S. aureus (COPS) isolates were identified in the samples as follow: RTE meat (15/64, 23.4%), hospitalized patients (33/72, 45.8%) and food handlers (12/40, 30%). All the COPS isolates were mecA positive (and thus were classified as MRSA) and multidrug resistant with multiple antibiotic resistance indices ranging from 0.25 to 0.92. Overall, resistance to cefepime (96.7%), penicillin (88.3%), were common, followed by ampicillin-sulbactam (65%), ciprofloxacin (55%), nitrofurontoin (51.7%), and gentamicin (43.3%). VRSA was detected in 30.3% of COPS hospitalized patient’s isolates, 26.7% of COPS RTE meat isolates and 25% of COPS food handler’s isolates. VanA, vanB, or both genes were detected in 64.7, 5.9, and 29.4% of all VAN-resistant isolates, respectively. The majority of the COPS isolates (50/60, 83.3%) have biofilm formation ability and harbored icaA (76%), icaD (74%), icaC (50%), and icaB (46%) biofilm-forming genes. The bap gene was not detected in any of the isolates. The ability of MRSA and VRSA isolates to produce biofilms in addition to being resistant to antimicrobials highlight the danger posed by these potentially virulent microorganisms persisting in RTE meat, food handlers, and patients. Taken together, good hygiene practices and antimicrobial surveillance plans should be strictly implemented along the food chain to reduce the risk of colonization and dissemination of MRSA and VRSA biofilm-producing strains.

Highlights

Staphylococcus aureus is an opportunistic human and animal pathogen causing food intoxication and a variety of infections ranging from skin and soft tissue infections to serious diseases including endocarditis, septicemia, osteomyelitis, pneumonia and toxic shock syndrome (Chen and Huang, 2014; Otto, 2014)
In the 50 isolates recovered from humans, pus samples revealed the highest number of isolates (n = 26) followed by hand swabs from food handlers (n = 14), and sputum (n = 10)
While this provides the advantage of fast food, it comes with the challenge and risk of bacterial infection especially these RTE products are not further exposed to heating

Summary

Introduction

Staphylococcus aureus is an opportunistic human and animal pathogen causing food intoxication and a variety of infections ranging from skin and soft tissue infections to serious diseases including endocarditis, septicemia, osteomyelitis, pneumonia and toxic shock syndrome (Chen and Huang, 2014; Otto, 2014). Multidrugresistant S. aureus especially methicillin-resistant (MRSA) strains are a major human health concern causing severe morbidity and mortality, in particular in hospitals (hospital-associated MRSA; HA-MRSA), and in healthy persons (community-associated MRSA; CA-MRSA) (Weber, 2005). MRSA, one of twelve priority pathogens that threaten human health as classified by the World Health Organization (WHO), has been increasingly detected in food products (Craft et al, 2019; Li et al, 2019). Human-mediated contamination of carcasses, meat product or ready-to-eat (RTE) foods at abattoirs, meat processing plants or during handling may be a source of MRSA and could represent potential risk for consumers (Hadjirin et al, 2015; Li et al, 2019)

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