Distribution of mecA-harboring Staphylococci in Healthy Mares.

Abstract

ABSTRACT. The prevalence of staphylococci that harbor the mecA gene responsible for methicillin resistance was examined in healthy breeding mares. Staphylococci often cause diseases of horses such as metritis, keratitis, and abscess. Methicillin-resistant s taphylococci would make antibiotic treatments ineffective, so it may be significant to know the distribution of mecA-harboring staphylococci in mares. Isolation of mecA-harboring staphylococci was achieved from nares and pasterns of 100 mares in Hokkaido, Japan. From 13% of the mares, mecA-harboring staphylococci, including 15 isolates of Staphylococcus sciuri and 3 of Staphylococcus lentus, were isolated. Isolates of S. sciuri were found to be genetically polyclonal by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. These isolates produced no PCase and showed low or no resistance to β-lactam and other classes of antibiotics. Distribution of staphylococcal species and levels of antibiotic resistance were found to be different between isolates from the present mares and those previously reported from riding-horses. Antibiotic pressure may lead to these differences. In addition, it appears that mecA-harboring S. sciuri may be native to horses.

Isolation and Molecular Characterization of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococci from Horses, Personnel and Environmental Sites at an Equine Hospital in Turkey

“…The rate of nasal MRCNS carriage in horses (47.8%) was higher than those previously reported in the Netherlands (22%) [4], Japan (13 to 29.5%) [38,39], Slovenia (42%) [34] and Italy (35.2%) [9] but lower than those reported in Denmark (50 to 82%) [2,20]. In previous studies, colonization of horses with methicillin-resistant S. lentus and S. sciuri has been reported [2,4,9,20,38,39]. However, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of mecA-mediated methicillin resistance in S. intermedius and S. fleuretti.…”

“…A high prevalence of methicillin-resistant staphylococci (MRS) colonization has also been reported in healthy horses in Europe [2,4,9,20,34] and Japan [38,39].…”

Antibiotic resistance of staphylococci from humans, food and different animal species according to data of the Hungarian resistance monitoring system in 2001

“…In the few cases when they did occur in animals, the human origin of the infections could be demonstrated (Devriese et al, 1997;Hartmann et al, 1997;Gortel et al, 1999;Seguin et al, 1999;Tomlin et al, 1999;Yasuda et al, 2002).…”

“…The mecA gene is therefore considered a useful molecular marker of methicillin resistance in Staphylococcus strains (Lencastre et al, 1996;Jaffe et al, 2000;Yasuda et al, 2002).…”

Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococci Isolated from Healthy Horses and Horse Personnel in Italy

“…3 Furthermore, in Japan, mecA-positive CoN staphylococci were cultured from the skin and nares of healthy horses. 32,33 Recently, high prevalence of the CoN staphylococci was found in healthy horses in Europe. 4,28,26 However, no MRSA strains have been isolated.…”