engleski

High carriage rate of methicillin-resistant staphylococci in small animal veterinary clinicians – indirect evidence of zoonotic transmission

The increase in bacterial resistance to antimicrobial agents that has been observed worldwide in recent decades is one of the most serious public health problems of today. One way to combat this problem is to adhere to biosafety measures in clinical work to prevent the spread of infection, overuse of antibiotics, and selection of resistant bacteria. The use and effectiveness of biosecurity measures in veterinary clinics is often evaluated by monitoring mucosal colonization of clinicians with methicillin-resistant staphylococci (MRS). Studies of the incidence of MRS in various populations have in many cases shown a higher incidence of infection and mucosal colonization by MRS in occupationally exposed individuals, such as veterinarians. This study included 79 veterinary professionals from five different clinics, whose nasal and buccal mucosa swabs were self-collected. Methicillin-resistant staphylococci were isolated by selective isolation procedures. Staphylococci were identified by cultural, morphological and biochemical characteristics. Furthermore, methicillin resistance was assessed by a disk diffusion phenotype assay according to EUCAST and confirmed by detection of the mecA gene by polymerase chain reaction as previously described. Methicillin-resistant staphylococci were isolated from 93.7% study participants. From 84.3% of them, more than one MRS isolate was isolated. In 73.0% of them, MRS was isolated from both nasal and buccal mucosa. Out of 144 MRS isolates, 4 (2.8%) were coagulase-positive staphylococci (CoPS) of the Staphylococcus pseudintermedius (MRSP) species. The majority of isolates (97.2%) were methicillin-resistant coagulase-negative staphylococci (MRCoNS). In all 144 isolates, the presence mecA gene was detected by PCR, thus confirming methicillin resistance of isolates. The high incidence of methicillin-resistant staphylococcal colonization is of concern because of the potential for opportunistic and nosocomial infections and transmission of genes responsible for methicillin resistance to coagulase-positive staphylococci. This is the first study on colonization of veterinary professionals in the Republic of Croatia. The results of this study may contribute to an even better implementation of biosecurity measures in everyday work.

CoPS ; MRCoNS ; Staphylococcus

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