Ecology of Staphylococcus aureus: Characterization of strains from chicken

Abstract

The majority of S. aureus strains isolated from beak-swabs and pathological processes in chicken shows coagulation of human plasma (not of bovine plasma), crystal violet-type A, hemolysinetype *4, formation of fibrinolysin, not formation of DXase and reactions with the experimental phage A1591. Because of the absence of DNase-formation and the reaction-specificity for phage A1591 we propose to designate these strains as host-specific variety gallinae of S. aureus. The strains from chicken are compared with strains of human, bovine, and ovine origin. An ecological study in a chicken farm has shown that S. aureus strains from chicken are not found in man and vice versa.The species Staphylococcus aureus can be subdivided into host-specific varieties (MEYER 1967, GRIGOROVA et al. 1976) and into biotypes (HAJEK and MARSALEK 1971). Host-specific-varieties or biotypes of S. aureus isolated from different ecological sources correspond to specific host animals and man, respectively, they show different biochemical characteristics and phage-patterns.The system of host-specific-varieties differentiates the species S. aureus into the varieties hominis, bovis, ovis, and canis and into strains which cannot be alloted to

Emergence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in different animal species

“…At that time characterization of S. aureus isolates by means of phenotypical traits (phage typing, hemolysine types, coagulase types, staphylokinase etc.) suggested the existence of host-adapted so-called ecovars such as for humans, cattle, sheep, and chicken (Meyer, 1967;Há jek and Marsá lek, 1969;Witte et al, 1977;Witte et al, 1978;Devriese, 1984;Theakston et al, 1990). These techniques have been useful for classifying bacterial isolates into convenient intraspecific subsets but provided little information about genetic relationships of these ecovars.…”

“…aureus is not only a colonizer of the upper respiratory tract mucosa of all mammals investigated so far, it has also been found in natural populations of birds (Há jek et al, 1988), in industrially raised poultry (Witte et al,1977), and probably also in snakes (Devriese and Há jek, 1980).…”

The use of a new phage set for typing poultry strains ofstaphylococcus aureusobtained from seven countries

“…Hajek and Horak (1978) confirmed this specificity; strains from human, porcine, bovine, ovine and leporine sources being generally refractile to this phage set, as were the strains from animal sources described as processed poultry in terms of cultural characteristics (Harry, 1967a, b;Shimizu, 1968;Hajek and Marsalek, 1971;Devriese et al, 1972;Sato et al, 1972;Kusch, 1977;Gibbs et al, 1978a). Witte et al (1977) defined Staph. aureus variety gallinae (a biotype frequently isolated from beak swabs, synovitis and dermonecrotic lesions) by this method, and by susceptibility to an experimental phage.…”

Inhibition of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) by antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) and plant essential oils

“…It has colonized approximately 30% asymptomatically of healthy people, permanently colonized the anterior nares in 10-20% of the population and intermittently colonized 30-50%; the rest of the population had never become colonized (Lowy 1998;Chambers 2001). Staphylococci aureus is not only a colonizer of the upper respiratory tract mucosa of all mammals investigated so far, it has also been found in natural populations of birds (Hajek et al 1988) in industrially raised poultry (Witte et al 1977) and probably also in snakes (Devriese & Hajek 1980). Since first being identified, S. aureus infections have been associated with significant morbidity and mortality.…”