Molecular Epidemiology of Methicillin-Susceptible and Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus in Wild, Captive and Laboratory Rats: Effect of Habitat on the Nasal S. aureus Population

Raafat, Dina; Mrochen, Daniel M.; Al’Sholui, Fawaz; Heuser, Elisa; Ryll, René; Pritchett-Corning, Kathleen R.; Jacob, Jens; Walther, Bernd; Matuschka, Franz‐Rainer; Richter, D.; Westerhüs, Uta; Pikula, Jiří; Brandt, Jens van den; Nicklas, Werner; Monecke, Stefan; Strommenger, Birgit; Alen, Sarah van; Becker, Karsten; Ulrich, Rainer G.; Holtfreter, Silva

doi:10.3390/toxins12020080

Cited by 19 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 96 publications

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“…ST188 is geographically widespread and found in many different host species, including humans [62]. ST130 is also predominantly associated with ruminants, although it is also found in humans, and was the main lineage found in hedgehogs in Sweden and rats in central Europe [63,64,8].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Fatal exudative dermatitis in island populations of red squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris): spillover of a virulent Staphylococcus aureus clone (ST49) from reservoir hosts

Fountain

Blackett²,

Butler

et al. 2021

Microbial Genomics

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Fatal exudative dermatitis (FED) is a significant cause of death of red squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris) on the island of Jersey in the Channel Islands where it is associated with a virulent clone of Staphylococcus aureus, ST49. S. aureus ST49 has been found in other hosts such as small mammals, pigs and humans, but the dynamics of carriage and disease of this clone, or any other lineage in red squirrels, is currently unknown. We used whole-genome sequencing to characterize 228 isolates from healthy red squirrels on Jersey, the Isle of Arran (Scotland) and Brownsea Island (England), from red squirrels showing signs of FED on Jersey and the Isle of Wight (England) and a small number of isolates from other hosts. S. aureus was frequently carried by red squirrels on the Isle of Arran with strains typically associated with small ruminants predominating. For the Brownsea carriage, S. aureus was less frequent and involved strains associated with birds, small ruminants and humans, while for the Jersey carriage S. aureus was rare but ST49 predominated in diseased squirrels. By combining our data with publicly available sequences, we show that the S. aureus carriage in red squirrels largely reflects frequent but facile acquisitions of strains carried by other hosts sharing their habitat (‘spillover’), possibly including, in the case of ST188, humans. Genome-wide association analysis of the ruminant lineage ST133 revealed variants in a small number of mostly bacterial-cell-membrane-associated genes that were statistically associated with squirrel isolates from the Isle of Arran, raising the possibility of specific adaptation to red squirrels in this lineage. In contrast there is little evidence that ST49 is a common carriage isolate of red squirrels and infection from reservoir hosts such as bank voles or rats, is likely to be driving the emergence of FED in red squirrels.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“… S. aureus ST49 has previously been isolated from small mammals [7, 8], from pig noses [9], and from humans, including the well-characterized Tager 104 strain, which was isolated in 1947 [10]. When different strains of S.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fatal exudative dermatitis in island populations of red squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris): spillover of a virulent Staphylococcus aureus clone (ST49) from reservoir hosts

Fountain

Blackett²,

Butler

et al. 2021

Microbial Genomics

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show abstract

“…are also highly prevalent opportunists in laboratory rodents and as both are zoonotic agents, infection may be transmitted from animals to humans—and also the other way round. However, two comprehensive studies predominantly found host-adapted Staphylococcus aureus isolates in laboratory mouse and rat colonies, which were sensitive to Methicillin treatment [ 72 , 73 ]. Although both agents are not necessarily harmful to the animals, susceptible strains may develop clinical symptoms due to natural bacterial colonization.…”

Section: How To Keep Them Healthymentioning

confidence: 99%

Health Monitoring of Laboratory Rodent Colonies—Talking about (R)evolution

Buchheister

Bleich

2021

Animals

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The health monitoring of laboratory rodents is essential for ensuring animal health and standardization in biomedical research. Progress in housing, gnotobiotic derivation, and hygienic monitoring programs led to enormous improvement of the microbiological quality of laboratory animals. While traditional health monitoring and pathogen detection methods still serve as powerful tools for the diagnostics of common animal diseases, molecular methods develop rapidly and not only improve test sensitivities but also allow high throughput analyses of various sample types. Concurrently, to the progress in pathogen detection and elimination, the research community becomes increasingly aware of the striking influence of microbiome compositions in laboratory animals, affecting disease phenotypes and the scientific value of research data. As repeated re-derivation cycles and strict barrier husbandry of laboratory rodents resulted in a limited diversity of the animals’ gut microbiome, future monitoring approaches will have to reform—aiming at enhancing the validity of animal experiments. This review will recapitulate common health monitoring concepts and, moreover, outline strategies and measures on coping with microbiome variation in order to increase reproducibility, replicability and generalizability.

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“…Apart from humans, it has been successfully isolated all over the world from a variety of companion, farm, and wild animals, which has recently been reviewed thoroughly [ 22 , 25 , 26 , 27 ]. Even laboratory animals, such as mice and rats, are sometimes “naturally” colonized or infected with S. aureus in their breeding facilities [ 28 , 29 , 30 ]. Nevertheless, by comparing the number and complexity of S. aureus lineages in humans and other hosts, and by reconstructing the emergence of S. aureus in those hosts, it becomes evident that humans are the primary host of S. aureus , acting as a major hub for numerous host switches [ 31 ].…”

Section: S Aureus ’ Extended Host Spectrummentioning

confidence: 99%

Staphylococcus aureus Host Tropism and Its Implications for Murine Infection Models

Mrochen

Oliveira

Raafat

et al. 2020

IJMS

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Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is a pathobiont of humans as well as a multitude of animal species. The high prevalence of multi-resistant and more virulent strains of S. aureus necessitates the development of new prevention and treatment strategies for S. aureus infection. Major advances towards understanding the pathogenesis of S. aureus diseases have been made using conventional mouse models, i.e., by infecting naïve laboratory mice with human-adapted S.aureus strains. However, the failure to transfer certain results obtained in these murine systems to humans highlights the limitations of such models. Indeed, numerous S. aureus vaccine candidates showed promising results in conventional mouse models but failed to offer protection in human clinical trials. These limitations arise not only from the widely discussed physiological differences between mice and humans, but also from the lack of attention that is paid to the specific interactions of S. aureus with its respective host. For instance, animal-derived S. aureus lineages show a high degree of host tropism and carry a repertoire of host-specific virulence and immune evasion factors. Mouse-adapted S.aureus strains, humanized mice, and microbiome-optimized mice are promising approaches to overcome these limitations and could improve transferability of animal experiments to human trials in the future.

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Molecular Epidemiology of Methicillin-Susceptible and Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus in Wild, Captive and Laboratory Rats: Effect of Habitat on the Nasal S. aureus Population

Cited by 19 publications

References 96 publications

Fatal exudative dermatitis in island populations of red squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris): spillover of a virulent Staphylococcus aureus clone (ST49) from reservoir hosts

Fatal exudative dermatitis in island populations of red squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris): spillover of a virulent Staphylococcus aureus clone (ST49) from reservoir hosts

Health Monitoring of Laboratory Rodent Colonies—Talking about (R)evolution

Staphylococcus aureus Host Tropism and Its Implications for Murine Infection Models

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