Staphylococcus aureus is one of the major causes of bloodstream infections. The aim of our study was to characterize methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolates from blood of patients hospitalized in the Czech Republic between 2016 and 2018. All MRSA strains were tested for antibiotic susceptibility, analyzed by spa typing and clustered using a Based Upon Repeat Pattern (BURP) algorithm. The representative isolates of the four most common spa types and representative isolates of all spa clonal complexes were further typed by multilocus sequence typing (MLST) and staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec) typing. The majority of MRSA strains were resistant to ciprofloxacin (94%), erythromycin (95.5%) and clindamycin (95.6%). Among the 618 strains analyzed, 52 different spa types were detected. BURP analysis divided them into six different clusters. The most common spa types were t003, t586, t014 and t002, all belonging to the CC5 (clonal complex). CC5 was the most abundant MLST CC of our study, comprising of 91.7% (n = 565) of spa-typeable isolates. Other CCs present in our study were CC398, CC22, CC8, CC45 and CC97. To our knowledge, this is the biggest nationwide study aimed at typing MRSA blood isolates from the Czech Republic.

• Keywords
• MLST, MRSA, SCCmec typing, Staphylococcus aureus, clonal analysis, epidemiology, spa typing,
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH

BACKGROUND: Cases of colonization or infection caused by Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) are frequently reported in people who work with animals, including veterinary personnel. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of MRSA colonization among veterinary professionals. A total of 134 nasal swabs from healthy attendees of a veterinary conference held in the Czech Republic were tested for presence of MRSA. The stains were further genotypically and phenotypically characterized. RESULTS: Nine isolated MRSA strains were characterized with sequence type (ST), spa type (t) and Staphylococcal Cassette Chromosome mec type. Five different genotypes were described, including ST398-t011-IV (n = 5), ST398-t2330-IV (n = 1), ST398-t034-V (n = 1), ST225-t003-II (n = 1) and ST4894-t011-IV (n = 1). The carriage of the animal MRSA strain was confirmed in 8 cases, characteristics of one strain corresponded to the possible nosocomial origin. Among animal strains were described three spa types (t011, t034, t2330) belonging into one dominating clonal complex spa-CC11. CONCLUSION: According to our results, the prevalence of nasal carriage of MRSA in veterinary personnel is 6.72%. Although we described an increase compared to the results of previous study (year 2008), the prevalence in the Czech Republic is still remaining lower than reported from neighboring countries. Our results also indicate that healthcare - associated MRSA strains are still not spread among animals.

• Keywords
• Carriage, Companion animals, Czech Republic, Livestock, Livestock-associated MRSA, Veterinarians,
• MeSH
• Adult MeSH
• Genotype MeSH
• Middle Aged MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus classification   genetics   isolation & purification   MeSH
• Nose microbiology   MeSH
• Occupational Exposure MeSH
• Carrier State epidemiology   microbiology   MeSH
• Prevalence MeSH
• Aged MeSH
• Staphylococcal Infections epidemiology   MeSH
• Students MeSH
• Education, Veterinary MeSH
• Veterinarians * MeSH
• Animals MeSH
• Check Tag
• Adult MeSH
• Middle Aged MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Aged MeSH
• Animals MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Geographicals
• Czech Republic epidemiology   MeSH