Biofilm Production Ability, Virulence and Antimicrobial Resistance Genes in Staphylococcus aureus from Various Veterinary Hospitals

Abstract

<b>:</b> <b></b><i>Staphylococcus aureus</i> (<i>S. aureus</i>) is one of the most clinically important zoonotic pathogens, but an understanding of the prevalence, biofilm formulation ability, virulence, and antimicrobial resistance genes of <i>S. aureus</i> from veterinary hospitals is lacking. By characterizing <i>S. aureus</i> in different origins of veterinary hospitals in Guangzhou, China, in 2019, we identified with the presence of <i>S. aureus</i> in pets (17.1%), veterinarians (31.7%), airborne dust (19.1%), environmental surfaces (4.3%), and medical device surfaces (10.8%). Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) and <i>Staphylococcus</i> protein A (<i>spa</i>) typing analyses demonstrated methicillin-sensitive <i>S. aureus</i> (MSSA) ST398-t571, MSSA ST188-t189, and methicillin-resistant <i>S. aureus</i> (MRSA) ST59-t437 were the most prevalent lineage. <i>S. aureus</i> with similar pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) types distributed widely in different kinds of samples. The crystal violet straining assays revealed 100% (3/3) of MRSA ST59 and 81.8% (9/11) of MSSA ST188 showed strong biofilm formulation ability, whereas other STs (ST1, ST5, ST7, ST15, ST88, ST398, ST3154 and ST5353) showed weak biofilm production ability. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) confirmed the most prevalent leucocidin, staphylococcal enterotoxins, <i>ica</i> operon, and adhesion genes were <i>lukD</i>-<i>lukE</i> (49.0%), <i>sec</i>-<i>sel</i> (15.7%), <i>icaA</i>-<i>icaB</i>-<i>icaC</i>-<i>icaR</i> (100.0%), and <i>fnbB</i>-<i>cidA</i>-<i>fib</i>-<i>ebps</i>-<i>eno</i> (100.0%), respectively. Our study showed that the isolates with strong biofilm production ability had a higher prevalence in <i>clfA</i>, <i>clfB</i>, <i>fnbA</i> and <i>sdrC</i> genes compared to the isolates with weak biofilm production ability. Furthermore, 2 ST1-MRSA isolates with <i>tst</i> gene and 1 ST88-MSSA isolate with <i>lukS</i><i>/F-PV</i> gene were detected. In conclusion, the clonal dissemination of <i>S. aureus</i> of different origins in veterinary hospitals may have occurred; the biofilm production capacity of <i>S. aureus</i> is strongly correlated with ST types; some adhesion genes such as <i>clfA</i>, <i>clfB</i>, <i>fnbA</i><i>,</i> <i>and</i> <i>sdrC</i> may pose an influence on biofilm production ability and the emergence of <i>lukS</i><i>/F-PV</i> and <i>tst</i> genes in <i>S. aureus</i> from veterinary hospitals should raise our vigilance.