Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) Strain ST398 Is Present in Midwestern U.S. Swine and Swine Workers

Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) Strain ST398 Is Present in Midwestern U.S. Swine and Swine Workers

Tara C. Smith1,2*, Michael J. Male1,2, Abby L. Harper1,2, Jennifer S. Kroeger3, Gregory P. Tinkler2, Erin D. Moritz1,2, Ana W. Capuano1,2, Loreen A. Herwaldt1,3,4, Daniel J. Diekema3,4,5

1 Department of Epidemiology, University of Iowa College of Public Health, Iowa City, Iowa, United States of America, 2 Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases, University of Iowa College of Public Health, Iowa City, Iowa, United States of America, 3 Department of Medicine, University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, Iowa City, Iowa, United States of America, 4 Program of Hospital Epidemiology, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City, Iowa, United States of America, 5 Department of Pathology, University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, Iowa City, Iowa, United States of America

Abstract Background Recent research has demonstrated that many swine and swine farmers in the Netherlands and Canada are colonized with MRSA. However, no studies to date have investigated carriage of MRSA among swine and swine farmers in the United States (U.S.).

Methods We sampled the nares of 299 swine and 20 workers from two different production systems in Iowa and Illinois, comprising approximately 87,000 live animals. MRSA isolates were typed by pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) using SmaI and EagI restriction enzymes, and by multi locus sequence typing (MLST). PCR was used to determine SCCmec type and presence of the pvl gene.

Results In this pilot study, overall MRSA prevalence in swine was 49% (147/299) and 45% (9/20) in workers. The prevalence of MRSA carriage among production system A's swine varied by age, ranging from 36% (11/30) in adult swine to 100% (60/60) of animals aged 9 and 12 weeks. The prevalence among production system A's workers was 64% (9/14). MRSA was not isolated from production system B's swine or workers. Isolates examined were not typeable by PFGE when SmaI was used, but digestion with EagI revealed that the isolates were clonal and were not related to common human types in Iowa (USA100, USA300, and USA400). MLST documented that the isolates were ST398.

Conclusions These results show that colonization of swine by MRSA was very common on one swine production system in the midwestern U.S., suggesting that agricultural animals could become an important reservoir for this bacterium. MRSA strain ST398 was the only strain documented on this farm. Further studies are examining carriage rates on additional farms.

Citation: Smith TC, Male MJ, Harper AL, Kroeger JS, Tinkler GP, et al. (2008) Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) Strain ST398 Is Present in Midwestern U.S. Swine and Swine Workers. PLoS ONE 4(1): e4258. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0004258

Editor: Ulrich Dobrindt, University of Würzburg, Germany

Received: October 9, 2008; Accepted: December 19, 2008; Published: January 23, 2008

Copyright: © 2009 Smith et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Funding: This study was funded with departmental startup funds (TCS). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

* E-mail: tara-smith@uiowa.edu

Introduction ...snip...end

see full text ;


http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0004258


MRSA

http://staphmrsa.blogspot.com/