Molecular Typing of Staph - Aureus MRSA Strains Isolated from Processed Fish in Port-Said Governorate

Abstract

Fish products could be contaminated with bacterial pathogens such as S. aureus, which could be transmitted to human causing severe illness. In order to throw the light on the presence of S. aureus in fish products as well as molecular typing of MRSA strains, a total of 200 samples of processed fish products (100 fish burger and 100 fish fillet) were collected from different frozen fish stores in Port-Said Governorate, Egypt. The collected samples were subjected to bacteriological examination. The prevalence of coagulase +ve S. aureus was (14%) in fish burger samples and (4%) in fish fillet samples. On the other hand, the prevalence of Coagulase –ve S. aureus was (4%) in fish burger samples and (1%) in fish fillet samples. Antimicrobial susceptibility for methicillin was carried out for detection of MRSA strains, where the prevalence of MRSA strains was 17% from the total isolated coagulase positive S. aureus strains, while none of the coagulase negative S. aureus strains proved to be MRSA. PCR protocol was used for detection of mecA gene in MRSA strains, where all the tested MRSA strains were positive for mecA gene with specific amplification size at 310 bp . Briefly, S. aureus considered to be one of the major bacterial agents causing food-borne illness in human due to contamination of fish products.