Abstract
Non-aureus staphylococci (NAS), including coagulase-negative staphylococci, have emerged as important causes of opportunistic infections in humans and animals and a potential cause of staphylococcal food poisoning. In this study, we investigated (i) the staphylococcal species profiles of NAS in in retail chicken meat, (ii) the phenotypic and genotypic factors associated with antimicrobial resistance in the NAS isolates, and (iii) the prevalence of classical and newer staphylococcal enterotoxin (SE) genes. A total of 58 NAS of nine different species were isolated from retail raw chicken meat samples. The occurrence of multidrug resistance in the NAS, particularly S. agnetis and S. chromogenes, with high resistance rates against tetracycline or fluoroquinolones were confirmed. The tetracycline resistance was associated with the presence of tet(L) in S. chromogenes and S. hyicus or tet(K) in S. saprophyticus. The occurrence of fluoroquinolone resistance in S. agnetis and S. chromogenes was usually associated with mutations in the quinolone resistance determining regions (QRDR) of gyrA and parC. In addition, the frequent presence of SE genes, especially seh, sej, and sep, was detected in S. agnetis and S. chromogenes. Our findings suggest that NAS in raw chicken meat can have potential roles as reservoirs for antimicrobial resistance and enterotoxin genes.
Highlights
Staphylococci are commensal colonizers of the skin and mucous membranes of humans and various animals [1,2,3]
Usually self-limiting, staphylococcal food poisoning (SFP) has been reported to be one of the most common food-borne diseases that results from the ingestion of food contaminated with staphylococcal enterotoxins (SEs), which are commonly secreted by S. aureus [3,9]
Based on previous publications that reported the coagulase-variable phenotype in S. hyicus, S. chromogenes, and S. agnetis isolates, these species were grouped as coagulase-variable staphylococci (CoVS) in this study [31,32,33]
Summary
Staphylococci are commensal colonizers of the skin and mucous membranes of humans and various animals [1,2,3]. Staphylococcus aureus has been the only well-known CoPS that is recognized as a major human and animal pathogen with many virulence factors [6,7,8]. In addition to the various virulence factors and enterotoxigenicity in staphylococci, antimicrobial-resistant staphylococcal isolates, especially methicillin-resistant staphylococci (MRS), have been increasingly reported in recent years [10,11]. The methicillin resistance phenotype in staphylococci is mostly caused by the mecA gene that is located within a staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec) [12]. In addition to mecA, other mec genes, such as mecB and mecC, have been recognized in association with β-lactam resistance in staphylococci [13,14]. The mecB and mecC genes have usually been identified within mobile
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