Virulent methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in street vended foods

Abstract

Street foods are one of the important sources of foodborne infections and Staphylococcus aureus is an important infectious agent transmitted through various sources including street foods. The methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) are of public health significance, hence the study was taken to assess the street foods as a source of MRSA, for which 430 street vended foods of animal origin (meat, milk, eggs and their products) and associated environmental samples were processed for isolation and characterization. A total of 52 (12.1%) S. aureus were isolated and resistant was observed to oxacillin (36.5%), cefoxitin (25%) and penicillin G (82.7%) by disc diffusion test. On genotypic screening, mecA and blaZ have detected in 17.3% and 69.2% isolates, respectively. The virulence typing identified nuc, coa, clfA, spA, FnbA and enterotoxin A (sea) genes in 100%, 96.2%, 30.8%, 55.8, 50% and 7.7% isolates, respectively. Genetic diversity among the isolates was observed by enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus PCR with a D value of 0.77. The presence of virulent MRSA in street vended foods trigger the public health concern and emphasis to educate the consumers and street food vendors about quality and safety of such foods.

Molecular Detection of Staphylococcal Enterotoxins and mecA Genes Products in Selected Food Samples Collected from Different Areas in Khartoum State

“…Identification of the bacteria isolated from the selected foods through conventional methods yielded a total of 137 (34.3%) S. aureus isolates. Similar reports on foods contaminated with S. aureus from Italy and India revealed much lower percentage yielding 17.1% [15] and 12.01% [16], respectively. e previous studies conducted to detect S. aureus in various foods revealed that the contamination levels with S. aureus reported were lower than those obtained in this study.…”

Molecular detection of Staphylococcal enterotoxins and mecA genes products in selected food samples collected from different areas in Khartoum state.

“…Identi cation of the bacteria isolated from the selected foods through conventional methods yielded a total of 137 (34.3 %) S. aureus isolates. Similar reports on foods contaminated with S. aureus from Italy and India revealed much lower percentage yielding 17.1% (15) and 12.01% (16) respectively. The previous studies conducted to detect S. aureus in various foods revealed that the contamination levels with S. aureus reported were lower than those obtained in this study.…”

Molecular detection of Staphylococcal enterotoxins and mecA genes products in food samples collected from different areas in Khartoum state.

“…For instance, study in Italy conducted by Traversa and his colleagues found that only 17.1% of different kind of their foods are contaminated by S. aureus (15). Similarly, another study conducted by Sivakumar and his colleagues in India and their results revealed that only 12.01% of Indian food contaminated by S. aureus (16) and the later nding dramatically disagreed with our result. On the other hand, a study was done in Greece by Papadopoulos and et al, found that 47.8% of northcentral and north-eastern Greece foods are contaminated by S. aureus (3) this nding is greatly exciding our results.…”