title: Diversity of Staphylococcus aureus Isolates in European Wildlife.
abstract: Staphylococcus aureus is a well-known colonizer and cause of infection among animals and it has been described from numerous domestic and wild animal species. The aim of the present study was to investigate the molecular epidemiology of S. aureus in a convenience sample of European wildlife and to review what previously has been observed in the subject field. 124 S. aureus isolates were collected from wildlife in Germany, Austria and Sweden; they were characterized by DNA microarray hybridization and, for isolates with novel hybridization patterns, by multilocus sequence typing (MLST). The isolates were assigned to 29 clonal complexes and singleton sequence types (CC1, CC5, CC6, CC7, CC8, CC9, CC12, CC15, CC22, CC25, CC30, CC49, CC59, CC88, CC97, CC130, CC133, CC398, ST425, CC599, CC692, CC707, ST890, CC1956, ST2425, CC2671, ST2691, CC2767 and ST2963), some of which (ST2425, ST2691, ST2963) were not described previously. Resistance rates in wildlife strains were rather low and mecA-MRSA isolates were rare (n = 6). mecC-MRSA (n = 8) were identified from a fox, a fallow deer, hares and hedgehogs. The common cattle-associated lineages CC479 and CC705 were not detected in wildlife in the present study while, in contrast, a third common cattle lineage, CC97, was found to be common among cervids. No Staphylococcus argenteus or Staphylococcus schweitzeri-like isolates were found. Systematic studies are required to monitor the possible transmission of human- and livestock-associated S. aureus/MRSA to wildlife and vice versa as well as the possible transmission, by unprotected contact to animals. The prevalence of S. aureus/MRSA in wildlife as well as its population structures in different wildlife host species warrants further investigation.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Medical Microbiology and Hygiene (IMMH), Technical University of Dresden, Dresden, Germany.|Alere Technologies GmbH, Jena, Germany.|InfectoGnostics Research Campus, Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Monecke
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology and Wildlife Disease, National Veterinary Institute (SVA), Uppsala, Sweden.|Department of Biomedical Sciences and Veterinary Public Health, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Dolores
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gavier-Widén
authors.affiliation: Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Federal Research Institute for Animal Health, Institute of Bacterial Infections and Zoonoses, Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Helmut
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hotzel
authors.affiliation: Chemisches und Veterinäruntersuchungsamt Westfalen, Standort Arnsberg, Arnsberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Peters
authors.affiliation: Institute of Microbiology and Epizootics, Veterinary Faculty, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Sebastian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Guenther
authors.affiliation: Microbiology Research Unit, Dublin Dental University Hospital, University of Dublin, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
authors.forename: Alexandros
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lazaris
authors.affiliation: Institute of Microbiology, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Igor
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Loncaric
authors.affiliation: Alere Technologies GmbH, Jena, Germany.|InfectoGnostics Research Campus, Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Elke
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Müller
authors.affiliation: Alere Technologies GmbH, Jena, Germany.|InfectoGnostics Research Campus, Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Annett
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Reissig
authors.affiliation: Institute for Medical Microbiology and Hygiene (IMMH), Technical University of Dresden, Dresden, Germany.
authors.forename: Antje
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ruppelt-Lorz
authors.affiliation: Microbiology Research Unit, Dublin Dental University Hospital, University of Dublin, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
authors.forename: Anna C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Shore
authors.affiliation: Institute of Microbiology and Epizootics, Veterinary Faculty, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Birgit
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Walter
authors.affiliation: Microbiology Research Unit, Dublin Dental University Hospital, University of Dublin, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
authors.forename: David C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Coleman
authors.affiliation: Alere Technologies GmbH, Jena, Germany.|InfectoGnostics Research Campus, Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Ralf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ehricht
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000835:Animals, Wild / Q000382:microbiology*; D001317:Austria; D015373:Bacterial Typing Techniques; D002417:Cattle; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000032:analysis; D003670:Deer / Q000382:microbiology; D005589:Foxes / Q000382:microbiology; D005858:Germany; D034621:Hares / Q000382:microbiology; D006364:Hedgehogs / Q000382:microbiology; D058885:Multilocus Sequence Typing / Q000379:methods*; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis / Q000379:methods*; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D013548:Sweden
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial