Population Structure of Staphylococcus aureus from Trinidad & Tobago

Abstract

It has been shown previously that high rates of methicillin- and mupirocin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus exist in the Caribbean islands of Trinidad and Tobago, as well as a high prevalence of Panton-Valentine leukocidin-positive S. aureus. Beyond these studies, limited typing data have been published. In order to obtain insight into the population structure not only of MRSA but also of methicillin-susceptible S. aureus, 294 clinical isolates collected in 2012/2013 were typed by microarray hybridisation. A total of 15.31% of the tested isolates were MRSA and 50.00% were PVL-positive. The most common MSSA strains were PVL-positive CC8-MSSA (20.41% of all isolates tested), PVL-positive CC152-MSSA (9.52%) and PVL-positive CC30-MSSA (8.84%) while the most common MRSA were ST239-MRSA-III&SCCmer (9.18%) and ST8-MRSA-IV, “USA300” (5.78%). 2.38% of characterised isolates belonged to distinct strains likely to be related to “Staphylococcus argenteus” lineages. The population structure of S. aureus isolates suggests an importation of strains from Africa, endemicity of PVL-positive MSSA (mainly CC8) and of ST239-MRSA-III, and a recent emergence of the PVL-positive CC8-MRSA-IV strain “USA300”.

Staphylococci in cattle and buffaloes with mastitis in Dakahlia Governorate, Egypt

“…The occurrence of this strain type has not yet been reported in animals. Human CC188-MSSA isolates were described in China (He et al, 2013) as well as from Trinidad and Tobago (Monecke et al, 2014). Song et al (2015) identified this type in fresh meat and frozen food in China.…”

Community-acquired infections due to Staphylococcus argenteus lineage isolates harbouring the Panton-Valentine leucocidin, France, 2014

“…ST75, ST850, ST883, ST1223, ST1304, ST1850) [2][3][4][5]. Such strains were isolated mainly from indigenous populations in Australia and French Guyana [2,4,6], but also in Cambodia, Fiji, Trinidad and Tobago, Thailand [7][8][9][10] and from animals in Africa [11,12]. No strain harbouring the PVL was described among these isolates, which were considered as having an attenuated virulence compared with other S. aureus strains [5,13,14].…”

Clinical and Molecular Epidemiology of Staphylococcus argenteus Infections in Thailand

“…Using a single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping method based on MLST, staphylococci belonging to CC75 were found to account for 71% of community-associated methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) skin and soft tissue infections in indigenous communities in the Northern Territory of Australia ( 6 ). Further isolation of CC75 from these communities ( 3 ) was followed by reports of its isolation in Cambodia ( 2 ), Indonesia ( 2 ), Fiji ( 7 ), and Trinidad and Tobago ( 8 ) and from members of an isolated village in the Amazonian forest in French Guinea ( 9 ). Information contained in the MLST database suggests that S. argenteus is also present in Europe and Africa.…”