Molecular typing of methicillin-resistant staphylococci isolated from cats and dogs.
OBJECTIVE
Methicillin-resistant staphylococci (MRS) isolates from healthy and diseased cats and dogs were characterized by staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec), multilocus sequence typing (MLST) and cassette chromosome recombinase gene (ccrAB) sequencing.


METHODS
PCR-directed SCCmec typing was carried out for all MRS isolates and two Staphylococcus aureus and two Staphylococcus epidermidis strains were analysed by MLST. Strains belonging to SCCmec type III and IV were sequenced for their ccrAB gene of allotypes 3 and 2, respectively.


RESULTS
Five types of SCCmec, types I, III, IV, IV (paediatric) and V SCCmec, were found. The S. aureus strains belonged to sequence type (ST) 239 and the two S. epidermidis belonged to ST43 and ST60 respectively. High sequence conservation was observed for the ccrAB gene of allotypes 2 and 3.


CONCLUSIONS
MRS isolates from cats and dogs demonstrate a similar diversity of SCCmec types to those found in human staphylococci and ST239-MRSA-III, a widely dispersed strain in human hospitals, was identified in diseased dogs.
Malik
Seidu
S
Sansom Institute, School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences, University of South Australia GPO Box 2471, Adelaide, 5000 SA, and Department of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, PathWest Laboratory Medicine WA Royal Perth Hospital, Australia.
Coombs
Geoffrey W
GW
O'Brien
Frances G
FG
Peng
Haihong
H
Barton
Mary D
MD
D000818:Animals; D015373:Bacterial Typing Techniques / Q000379:methods; D002371:Cat Diseases / Q000382:microbiology*; D002415:Cats; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D004283:Dog Diseases / Q000382:microbiology*; D004285:Dogs; D005838:Genotype; D016106:Methicillin Resistance; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017385:Sequence Homology; D013203:Staphylococcal Infections / Q000382:microbiology / Q000662:veterinary*; D013210:Staphylococcus / Q000145:classification* / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification
D004269:DNA, Bacterial