Prevalence of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus and Classical Enterotoxin Genes Among Sudanese Food Handlers

Abstract

Food handlers who carry enterotoxin-producing Staphylococcus aureus could become potential reservoirs of Staphylococcal food poisoning. The study is a cross-sectional one aimed to determine the prevalence of methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) and staphylococcal enterotoxins from randomly selected food handlers in Al Jazirah state, Sudan. Culture swabs were collected from the hands and nasals of food handlers (2016-2018). Identification of S. aureus was done on the basis of conventional laboratory tests. All S. aureus isolates were screened for MRSA and staphylococcal enterotoxin (SE) genes by polymerase chain reaction. The S. aureus strains were isolated from 25% of the collected culture swabs of which 42% were confirmed as MRSA. The existence of one or more of enterotoxin genes was confirmed in 34.4% of the isolated S. aureus strains. The combined staphylococcal enterotoxin genes were found in 9.6% of the isolates. The SE genes among MRSA strains (61.5%) were found to be higher than methicillin-sensitive S. aureus strains (14.8%). The most frequent staphylococcal enterotoxin genes were SEA (19.4%) followed by the SEB (8.6%), SEC (4.3%), and SED (2.1%). The carriage rate of MRSA strains demonstrated a higher rate of staphylococcal enterotoxins genes than methicillin-sensitive S. aureus . There is an increasing prevalence of MRSA compared with the previous rates and staphylococcal enterotoxin genes among Sudanese food handlers, which is a serious problem for public health.

The Outstanding Effect of Casein and α-Lactalbumin on Multidrug Resistance Staphylococcus aureus Isolated from Ready to Eat Meat Products and Human Samples

“…Nearly similar results were reported by (Bassyouni et al, 2012) who investigated S. aureus in 36.1% hand swabs of food handlers. While lower results were reported by (Castro et al, 2016;Beyene et al, 2019;Ahmed, 2020;Alves et al, 2021) in percentage of 11.1%, 11.3%, 25%, and 8.9%, respectively. These results revealed that food handlers play a great role in microbial contamination of food (Yap et al, 2019).…”

Characterization of the virulence, agr typing and antimicrobial resistance profile of Staphylococcus aureus strains isolated from food handlers in Brazil

“…In this study, it was observed that S. aureus was isolated in half of the samples of nasal cavities and underside of nails from food handlers. According to Castro et al, 15 Ahmed, 25 and Saber et al 26 the presence of S. aureus in the hands and/or noses of food handlers was of 30%, 25%, and 30%, respectively.…”

“…This gene is commonly associated with contaminated food and is considered the enterotoxin gene most prevalent and leading cause of staphylococcal food poisoning worldwide. 15 , 25 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 …”

MRSA Colonization in Workers from Different Occupational Environments—A One Health Approach Perspective

“…Thus, since health professionals are in direct contact with patients who may be contaminated, non-compliance with hygiene rules can be a way of spreading MRSA inside and outside the hospital environment, and in the community [29]. As previously mentioned, S. aureus has the ability to colonize different areas of the human body, with a preference for the nasopharynx [30] and the ability to spread as well as being transmitted by direct contact (mainly by hands) or indirect (contaminated surfaces) [31][32][33]. Indeed, one of its fundamental biological characteristics is the ability to colonize the healthy population asymptomatically (asymptomatic carrier), thus assuming an important role in spreading to other areas of the body, to other people and even contaminating food and surfaces during handling [31][32][33].…”

“…As previously mentioned, S. aureus has the ability to colonize different areas of the human body, with a preference for the nasopharynx [30] and the ability to spread as well as being transmitted by direct contact (mainly by hands) or indirect (contaminated surfaces) [31][32][33]. Indeed, one of its fundamental biological characteristics is the ability to colonize the healthy population asymptomatically (asymptomatic carrier), thus assuming an important role in spreading to other areas of the body, to other people and even contaminating food and surfaces during handling [31][32][33]. This colonization is considered a risk factor for the onset of infections by S. aureus, often combined with methicillin resistance-MRSA, increasing the risk of clinical disease [33,34].…”