Multiple-locus variable-number tandem repeat fingerprinting as a method for rapid and cost-effective typing of animal-associated Staphylococcus aureus strains from lineages other than sequence type 398

Abstract

In veterinary medicine, Staphylococcus aureus is associated with a range of mild to severe infections. The high density of livestock in intensive farming systems increases the risk of disease spread and hampers its control and measures of prevention, making S. aureus one of the most important animal pathogens. Multiple-locus variable-number tandem repeat fingerprinting (MLVF) has been successfully applied to the characterization of livestock-associated meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) ST398 but not to the characterization of a wide range of other animal isolates. The objective of the current study was to examine the effectiveness of MLVF for studying S. aureus strains isolated from households, farms and exotic animals in three regions of Poland. MLVF, random amplification of polymorphic DNA (RAPD), spa typing and diagnostic microarrays were compared to determine the most suitable combination of methods for veterinary purposes. MLVF generated results consistent with host and geographic origins, reflecting population structures with a high concordance to spa typing results. MLVF has been proven to be a rapid, highly discriminatory and cost-effective method suitable for molecular typing in veterinary settings.

First Case of Staphylococci Carrying Linezolid Resistance Genes from Laryngological Infections in Poland

“…Unlike prior studies, where ST5 and ST188 were predominant among linezolidresistant strains (data for S. aureus) [3,37], in our study, the S. aureus strain belonged to ST398, one of the most frequent lineages of LA-MRSA in Europe [38,39]. It was observed that the occurrence of LA-MRSA in human is strongly associated with the increased contact with livestock [40]. Furthermore, it is known that ST398 often shows extensive resistance, which is selected by the widespread use of antibiotics in livestock farming [41,42].…”

Epidemiology and Pathogenesis of Staphylococcus Bloodstream Infections in Humans: a Review

“…The increase of methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) isolates in hospital and the community due to horizontal gene transfer across bacterial species occurred. The environmental and animal-associated CoNS may be underestimated factor for the spread of the resistance genes into more pathogenic species like S. aureus (Kosecka- Strojek et al 2016 ; Lisowska-Łysiak et al 2019 ). Methicillin and vancomycin resistance remain the major antimicrobial resistance phenotype of concern.…”

Usefulness of molecular typing methods for epidemiological and evolutionary studies of Staphylococcus aureus isolated from bovine intramammary infections

“…This PCR-based method is being increasingly used to type this pathogen, especially during mastitis outbreaks ( Fitzgerald et al, 1997 , Gurjar et al, 2012 , Morandi et al, 2010 , Myllys et al, 1997 , Pereira et al, 2002 , Reinoso et al, 2004 , Wang et al, 2015 ). When compared to other typing methods, RAPD has been found to be more discriminating than coa -RFLP ( Morandi et al, 2010 ), MLEE, and ribotyping ( Fitzgerald et al, 1997 ), but less discriminating than other tested approaches, such as spa typing and microarrays ( Kosecka-Strojek et al, 2016 ), and MLVA ( Kosecka-Strojek et al, 2016 , Morandi et al, 2010 ). This procedure’s discriminatory power highly depends on the number of primers, so it can be improved by applying more primers ( Myllys et al, 1997 , Reinoso et al, 2004 ).…”