Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) of sequence type 398 (ST398) has frequently been detected in pigs and pig handlers. However, in Malaysia, sampling 360 pigs and 90 pig handlers from 30 farms identified novel ST9-spa type t4358-staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec type V MRSA strains that were found to transiently colonize more than 1% of pigs and 5.5% of pig handlers.

Fourteen indigenous microalgal samples from Malaysia were isolated, purified and cultured from fresh, brackish and marine waters. The ability of the microalgae to be natural sources of antioxidants was studied by a screening test using three antioxidant chemical assays [ferric thiocyanate (FTC), thiobarbituric acid (TBA) and 1, 1'-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH)]. The results showed that six microalgal methanolic crude extracts (Isochrysis galbana, Chaetoceros calcitrans, Scenedesmus quadricauda, Chlorella vulgaris, Nannochloropsis oculata and Tetraselmis tetrathele) were active in inhibiting the lipid peroxidation of linoleic acid. Among all the microalgae, I. galbana and C. calcitrans showed the highest antioxidant activity (>90%) in FTC and TBA assays, indicating that these microalgae might contain active compounds for protection from lipid peroxidation. Nutritional analyses were performed on microalgae with high antioxidant activities (I. galbana and C. calcitrans) in order to investigate their nutritive value. Both microalgae were found to be rich in nutrients. For examples, I. galbana had average percentage composition of protein, carbohydrate, and lipid, as 47.9±2.5; 26.8±0.2; 14.5±1.4%, respectively, while the corresponding values for C. calcitrans were 36.4±

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) from Malaysia were shown to possess staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec)-III and IIIA. Spa sequencing and multi-locus sequence typing (MLST) documented t037 and ST 239 (CC8) for 83.3% of the isolates. This confirms observations in several other Far Eastern countries and corroborates the epidemicity of this clone.The emergence and global spread of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) over the past five decades constitutes one of the most serious contemporary challenges to the successful treatment of hospital-acquired infections. The enhanced success of MRSA in acquiring resistance to additional groups of antimicrobial agents renders infections caused by these pathogens very difficult to manage and expensive to treat [1]. The prevalence rate of MRSA varies widely among cities, countries and continents because of the clonal dissemination of locally prevalent MRSA clones. The genotypic characteristics of MRSA strains from 12 Asian countries assessed recently by multi-locus sequence typing (MLST) and staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec) typing identified clonal cluster 5 (CC5) MRSA of SCCmec type II (CC5-MRSA-II) as a prototype clone in Korea and Japan while CC239-MRSA-III (or IIIA) appeared to be the major clone in other Asian countries [2]. The above study did not include isolates from Malaysia, another Asian country where the prevalence of MRSA in several hospitals is over 40% [3], but information on the molecular characteristics and clonal distribution of Malaysian MRSA is still limited. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to determine the SCCmec and sequence types of the predominant clones circulating in a large public hospital in Malaysia.Thirty-six non-repetitive invasive MRSA strains isolated from different clinical sources (blood, pus, urine and tracheal aspirates) collected from a public hospital in Klang Valley (Malaysia) from September 2006 to February 2007 were examined. Isolates were classified as HA and CA-MRSA based on the date of admission, specimen collection date, the number of previous admissions and hospital exposures, and prolonged hospital stays. All isolates were reconfirmed as MRSA by standard laboratory procedures and subjected to SCCmec and Spa typing [4,5]. Selected isolates from the dominant Spa types were further typed by MLST [6]. Pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) typing was performed to define the precise relatedness among the strains [7].Among the 36 isolates ( Fig. 1), 15 (41.6%) and 19 (52.7%) possessed SCCmec type III and IIIA respectively, while 2 isolates (5.5%) were SCCmec type V. The SCCmec V isolates were also Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL)-positive as was reported previously [8]. Molecular typing by Spa sequencing and MLST identified t037 and ST 239 belonging to CC8 as the most predominant MRSA, covering 83.3% of the isolates studied. Other Spa and sequence types such as t074, t421, t3103, t127 (ST1) and t657 (ST 772) were found incidentally. Spa t074 and t421

Prevalence of Panton-Valentine leukocidin genes among carriage and invasive Staphylococcus aureus isolates in MalaysiaStaphylococcus aureus nasal colonization is common among humans, and causality between carriage and invasive diseases has been substantiated. 1 The pathogenicity of S. aureus is determined by a variety of bacterial cell wall surface components and exoproteins. Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL), one of these pathogenic determinants, is a bicomponent cytotoxin encoded by the pvl genes luk-S-PV and luk-F-PV. PVL destroys leukocytes by creating pores in the mitochondrial membrane. 2 The PVL genes are predominantly associated with S. aureus strains that cause communityacquired infections, including skin and soft-tissue abscesses, necrotizing pneumonia and invasive osteomyelitis. 3 Recent reports of increasing numbers of S. aureus infections caused by PVL-positive organisms worldwide prompted us to investigate the prevalence of such strains in Malaysia.The study was conducted on S. aureus strains collected from the anterior nares of two different populations (age 1-80 years) after institutional ethical approval. Strains were derived from (i) an indigenous community known locally as 'Orang asli' (n = 47) and (ii) rural people (n = 41) living in a village that belongs to a federal land development authority (Felda). Strains derived from these people were compared with a set of invasive methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) (n = 40) strains (blood culture, skin and soft-tissue infections) collected in a public hospital. All strains (128) were subjected to PVL toxin gene PCR. 4 PVL-positive strains were typed by multi locus sequence typing (MLST). MRSA strains with the PVL genes were further characterized by staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec) typing. 5 Forty-seven (22.5%) of 208 indigenous, and 41 (19.24%) of 213 rural people appeared to be colonized with methicillinsusceptible S. aureus. One (2.1%) of 47 indigenous and three

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