The populations of Japanese deer and boar have increased dramatically and have a serious impact on farming and mountain villages. Although the Japanese government promotes the use of captured wild animals, game meat is not subject to sanitary control considering that it is not subject to meat inspection or quality control. Here, we have attempted to isolate Staphylococcus aureus, a typical foodborne pathogen, as a part of an investigation of contamination in the meats of wild animals and their processing stages. We examined 390 samples of deer feces, 117 samples of wild boar feces, and 75 samples of disemboweled deer meat for isolation of S. aureus; ultimately, 30 (positive rate: 7.7%), 2 (1.7%), and 21 (28.0%) strains were isolated, respectively, from the samples. The genome sequences of these isolates were analyzed and were subjected to multilocus sequence typing. We identified 12 new sequence types (STs) and a dominant population of S. aureus with a characteristic genetic background in wild animals, namely, the ST groups derived from CC121 (number of strains = 39). These strains did not harbor the enterotoxin gene or only harbored egc-related enterotoxin, which is of low involvement in Staphylococcal food poisoning. However, one ST2449 strain, which produces causative enterotoxins, was isolated from a deer's feces. Since there are several common STs isolated from feces and dismembered meat and because fecal contamination during dismemberment is suspected, continuous monitoring and guidance for improving sanitary management conditions during processing and handling of the meat are highly warranted with immediate effect.

Department of Microbiology Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Public Health 3 24 1 Hyakunin Cho Shinjuku Ku Tokyo 169 0073 Japan

Department of Pathogenetic and Preventive Veterinary Science Joint Faculty of Veterinary Medicine Kagoshima University 1 21 24 Korimoto Kagoshima Kagoshima 890 0065 Japan

Division of Biomedical Food Research National Institute of Health Sciences 3 25 26 Tonomachi Kawasaki Ku Kawasaki Kanagawa 210 9501 Japan

Laboratory of Animal Hygiene Kitasato University School of Veterinary Medicine Higashi 23 35 1 Towada Aomori 034 8628 Japan

Laboratory of Veterinary Food Hygiene Department of Veterinary Medicine College of Bioresource Sciences Nihon University 1866 Kameino Fujisawa Kanagawa 252 0880 Japan

Laboratory of Veterinary Parasitic Diseases Department of Veterinary Sciences Faculty of Agriculture University of Miyazaki 1 1 Gakuen Kibanadai Nishi Miyazaki 889 2192 Japan

Laboratory of Zoonoses Kitasato University School of Veterinary Medicine Higashi 23 35 1 Towada Aomori 034 8628 Japan

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