Prevalence of MRSA types in slaughter pigs in different German abattoirs.
To investigate the prevalence of types of meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in slaughter pigs in German abattoirs, nasal swabs were collected from a total of 1026 pigs in five abattoirs after stunning in the course of two studies, and examined for MRSA. Study 1 included four abattoirs; study 2 was carried out in one large abattoir. Isolates were tested for antimicrobial susceptibility and characterised using spa-typing, multilocus sequence typing (MLST) and typing of the staphylococcal cassette chromosome, SCCmec. Overall, MRSA was isolated from 70.8 per cent of 520 samples in study 1 and from 49.0 per cent of 506 samples in study 2. The proportion of positive samples varied substantially between the abattoirs in study 1. Most isolates belonged to spa-types t011 and t034 and SCCmec types III and V. MLST of selected isolates revealed that they were all MLST ST398. Besides beta-lactams, 100 per cent of the isolates were resistant to tetracycline, 80.5 per cent were resistant to erythromycin and 80.7 per cent were resistant to clindamycin. Less than 5 per cent of the isolates were resistant to other antimicrobials.
Tenhagen
B-A
BA
Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, Berlin, Germany. bernd-alois.tenhagen@bfr.bund.de
Fetsch
A
A
Stührenberg
B
B
Schleuter
G
G
Guerra
B
B
Hammerl
J A
JA
Hertwig
S
S
Kowall
J
J
Kämpe
U
U
Schroeter
A
A
Bräunig
J
J
Käsbohrer
A
A
Appel
B
B
D000003:Abattoirs; D000818:Animals; D005858:Germany / Q000453:epidemiology; D055624:Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D015995:Prevalence; D012481:Salmonella Infections, Animal / Q000453:epidemiology*; D013552:Swine; D013553:Swine Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology*