Prevalence and antimicrobial resistance profiling of Staphylococcus aureus isolated from traditional cheese in Yunnan, China

Abstract

The prevalence of staphylococcal infection and the emergence of multidrug resistance of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) are major concerns in food safety and public health. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of S. aureus isolated from traditional Chinese Rubing and Rushan cheese, antimicrobial resistance profiles, genomic characteristics, and predict antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs). From 124 samples, 18 of 62 (29.03%) of Rubing and 5 of 62 (8.06%) of Rushan cheese were confirmed to be S. aureus positive by standard culture-based methods. Twenty-three coagulase-positive staphylococci isolates were grouped into 16 clusters by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis and subjected to routine susceptibility testing to 12 antibiotics. Those isolates exhibited high resistance to penicillin (100%), erythromycin, trimethoprim-sulphamethoxazole (34.78%), oxacillin, clindamycin, and cefoxitin (21.74%). Multidrug-resistant (MDR) S. aureus was found in 34.78% (8 of 23) of isolates. Further, S. aureus strain DC.RB_015 isolated from Rubing cheese, recognized as the most resistant to six antibiotics, was selected for whole-genome sequencing (WGS), continued with in silico approaches. S. aureus DC.RB_015 had a single chromosome size of 2,794,578 bp and a plasmid size of 22,961 bp. The strain harbored 18 predicted ARGs, including eight efflux pump genes (mepA, tet(K), arlR, arlS, norA, mgrA, tet(38), LmrS), one peptidoglycan biosynthesis gene (bacA), two β-lactams resistance genes (mecA, blaZ), and seven genes conferring other antimicrobial resistance (APH(3′)-IIIa, aad(6), ErmB, mecR1, GlpT, murA). The results of this study expand the knowledge of S. aureus strain DC.RB_015, increase food safety awareness, and will be helpful in establishing therapeutic therapy.

Occurrence and Characteristics of Staphylococcus aureus Strains along the Production Chain of Raw Milk Cheeses in Poland

“…Nowadays, studies on the prevalence and characterization of S. aureus isolated from final dairy products available for consumers are very common, with examples from China, Norway, and Greece, among other countries [ 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 ]. In addition, numerous articles have been published on the prevalence and characterization of S. aureus in raw milk, especially in China, Iran, and Australia [ 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 ].…”

Antimicrobial and biocide resistance in Staphylococcus aureus: genomic features, decontamination strategies, and the role of S. aureus complex-related species, with a focus on ready-to-eat food and food-contact surfaces

“…Many studies reported the WGS-based prediction of S. aureus AMR in food (Zhang F. et al, 2022;Fanelli et al, 2022;Li et al, 2022;Sri Prabakusuma et al, 2022;Wu et al, 2022). Resistance prediction databases, such as CARD, MEGARes, and AMRFinder, generally rely on BLASTn analysis and require significant computational resources and time (Gordon et al, 2014;Babiker et al, 2019).…”

Cluster Analysis of Clinical, Food, and Handler Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus Isolates Characterized by Pulse Field Gel Electrophoresis

“…According to the results of the molecular study, the isolates of subcluster IA2a (MP2, CR5, CE1, CMP1) showed a similarity of 62%. This subcluster was classified into two subclusters, where only one isolate (12) belonged to the subcluster 1A2a1, while the subcluster 1A2a2 consisted of 3 isolates (MP2, CR5, CE1) which belonged to the (MP2, CR5, CE1), which showed a similarity of 88%. From these isolates, only two isolates (MP2, CR5) showed a similarity of 86 %.…”

“…A 10 5 bacteria/gram concentration in the foods is adequate for producing the toxin and inducing of the illness (8,9) . Numerous researches showed that 15-80% of S. aureus which have been separated from a variety of the food sources (such as ice cream, dairy products and meats) (2,(10)(11)(12) .…”