For monitoring the occurrence of MRSA (methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus) and MR-CNS (methicillin resistant coagulase-negative staphylococci), cow’s, goat’s, and sheep’s milks (bulk milks and individual samples) were investigated. Human nasal and throat swabs of the farm staff and nasal swabs of animals were also investigated as well. In total 1729 samples were examined and 634 strains were isolated by means of the cultivation method and used in this study. Generic identification of the staphylococci isolates was done performed by biochemical tests and all S. aureus and CNS isolates were checked by the PCR method for the presence of mecA gene which is responsible for methicillin resistance. The presence of the staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec), Panton-Valentine leukocidin (pvl) and genes encoding toxic shock syndrome toxin (tst) was detected in all strains confirmed as MRSA. The species were also examined for antimicrobial susceptibility by using disk diffusion method with antibiotic disks. S. aureus was the most frequently identified species from the samples tested (n = 557; 32.2%), followed by S. haemolyticus (n = 32; 1.9%), S. chromogenes (n = 24; 1.4%), S. epidermidis (n = 20; 1.2%), and S. caprae (n = 1; 0.16%). Among the resistant staphylococci (n = 49), S. aureus (n = 25; 51%) was found the most frequently, followed by S. epidermidis (n = 17; 34.7%), S. chromogenes (n = 6; 12.2%), and S. haemolyticus (n = 1; 2%). The resistant Staphyloccocus sp. occurred mainly in cow’s milk (MRSA, S. epidermidis, S. chromogenes, S. haemolyticus) and in animal’s swabs (S. epidermidis). One MRSA was also found in goat’s milk and one was isolated from human swab. No resistant strains were found in sheep’s milk. The negative results of the analysed genes presence (pvl, tst) were identical with all MRSA tested. The staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec) was classified as type IV or V.

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Alleles A1 and A2 of the Bos taurus CSN2 gene are the most frequent in a number of dairy cattle breeds. In this study, a new allelic discrimination assay using TaqMan fluorogenic probes was developed to detect single nucleotide substitution characterizing the A1/A2 alleles of the CSN2 gene. The method was validated using DNA samples of known genotypes with different concentrations and the results were compared with those for the commonly used problematic ACRS-PCR. We found the TaqMan method to be more effective, 100% reliable and hundred times more sensitive for testing the CSN2 genetic marker in cattle than the ACRS-PCR. As it enabled a rapid analysis of a large number of DNA samples in uniform format without previous DNA quality assessment and without the requirement for post-amplification manipulations, it presents an effective tool for the analysis of large-scale sample sets. The method was applied for testing on a sample of 120 Czech Holstein dairy cows. The observed relative genotype and allele frequencies were as follows: A1A1-0.20, A1A2-0.51, A2A2-0.29; A1-0.45, A2-0.55.

The study focused on the prevalence of Staphylococcus aureus and resistant strains in livestock. In this study, 114 different samples from three cattle farms (84 from two farms of dairy cows and 30 from one farm of suckler cows), 132 samples from one sheep farm, 120 samples from one goat farm, and 82 samples from three pig farms were examined. Strains identified as Staphylococcus aureus were further analysed by the polymerase chain reaction method for detection of the mecA gene and for confirmation of the sequence type 398. Positive incidence of Staphylococcus aureus was confirmed in farms of suckler cows, sheep, goats and pigs. The incidence of methicilinresistant Staphylococcus aureus was confirmed at a goat farm, with all strains belonging to the sequence type 398. Repetitive element palindromic-polymerase chain reaction analysis was performed to compare the relatedness of selected human and animal S. aureus strains at the goat and sheep farms. The obtained data from repetitive element-polymerase chain reaction analysis showed significant clonal similarity among the tested isolates and indicated the possibility of mutual transmission between animals or animal and human and possible transfer in the food chain. Breeding environment, food animals, methicillin resistant S. aureus