title: Molecular epidemiology of Staphylococcus spp. contamination in the ward environment: study on mecA and femA genes in methicillin-resistant strains.
abstract: Staphylococcus spp. were isolated from the ward environment and antibiotic susceptibility tests were performed. Twenty-nine strains out of 274 isolates were S. aureus, and 41.4% of the S. aureus strains were methicillin resistant (MRSA). All 12 strains of MRSA were also resistant to oxacillin, ceftizoxime, ampicillin and clindamycin. Among the coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS), methicillin-resistant (MR) strains of S. epidermidis, S. capitis, S. warneri, S. haemolyticus, S. hominis, S. auricularis, S. saprophyticus and S. cohnii were isolated. Eight of the 10 S. Haemolyticus strains were methicillin resistant. The femA gene was detected in S. aureus (MSSA and MRSA), but not in CNS by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis and Southern blot analysis. The mecA gene was found in all the MRSA and MR-S. epidermidis strains tested, and one of the two MR-S. hominis strains, but not in MSSA, MS-S. epidermidis, MS-S. hominis, or MS-S. haemolyticus. DNA from one strain of MR-S. hominis and 2 strains of MR-S. haemolyticus was not amplified by PCR using the mecA gene primer, or hybridized by Southern blotting. The ambiguity that mecA was detected in some MR-CNS strains, but not in others is discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Tottori University.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ashimoto
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hamada
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Adachi
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tanigawa
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tanaka
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D004783:Environmental Microbiology; D004866:Equipment Contamination; D005430:Floors and Floorcoverings; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D016106:Methicillin Resistance / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010362:Patients' Rooms; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification