Abstract
In the Netherlands, meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is detected on pork and veal farms, and hence farmers working with MRSA-positive animals are at an increased risk of being colonised. Recently retail meat products have been found positive for MRSA. Therefore, we tested the prevalence of MRSA among employees who work in the cold meat processing industry and in institutional kitchens. Nasal swabs and samples from the employees' hands as well as the handled meat were tested quantitatively and qualitatively for the presence of MRSA. Typical colonies were confirmed by PCR and typed using multi-locus sequence typing and spa–typing. All samples taken from 95 employees tested negative for MRSA, but 31 carried MSSA. From meat, five of 35 samples were positive for MRSA, containing between 0.01 and more than 10 bacteria per gram. The risk for professionals of MRSA colonisation from handling raw meat was therefore low in our setting, suggesting that the general population is at an even lower risk of being infected through meat handling.
Highlights
Staphylococcus aureus is a Gram-positive, catalasepositive commensal bacterium colonising both humans and animals
The same strain was typed by multi-locus sequence typing (MLST), and it was shown that the vast majority of isolates of this strain belonged to sequence type (ST) 398 [6]
Among these negatively tested participants were those with a predisposing risk due to the use of antibiotics or hospital admission, as well as six persons that did not provide information for the questionnaire
Summary
Staphylococcus aureus is a Gram-positive, catalasepositive commensal bacterium colonising both humans and animals. In the Netherlands, 0.6% of all S. aureus strains isolated from hospitals between 1999 and 2003 [3], were resistant to meticillin. A partial explanation for this steep increase is the fact that screening of risk groups, including persons frequently in contact with pigs or calves, for MRSA carriage at hospital admission was implemented in the Netherlands in 2006. The same strain was typed by multi-locus sequence typing (MLST), and it was shown that the vast majority of isolates of this strain belonged to sequence type (ST) 398 [6] Another typing method, staphylococcal protein A (spa) typing, is frequently used to determine the number and sequence of repeats in the spa gene. The virulence potential of MRSA is associated with its ability to produce the Panton–Valentine leukocidin (PVL) cytotoxin [9]
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