After its emergence in 2003, a livestock-associated (LA-)MRSA clade (CC398) has caused an impressive increase in the number of isolates submitted for the Dutch national MRSA surveillance and now comprises 40% of all isolates. The currently used molecular typing techniques have limited discriminatory power for this MRSA clade, which hampers studies on the origin and transmission routes. Recently...

Among 23 patients carrying methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in their anterior nares, 6 (26%) also carried methicillin-susceptible S. aureus (MSSA) as less prevalent flora. In 4 of the 6 patients, the MSSA was unrelated to prevalent MRSA, as determined by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), multilocus sequence typing (MLST), and staphylococcal protein A (spa) typing. Howev...

Information about the molecular structure of MRSA strains provides significant insights into the epidemiology of this important pathogen. To investigate the molecular characteristics of MRSA isolates, MRSA isolates were subjected to molecular typing by means of spa typing, multilocus sequence typing, Staphylococcal Cassette Chromosome mec (SCCmec) grouping and to phenotypic antimicrobial suscep...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the presence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) among a (S. aureus) collection (n = 430) isolated from milk of cows suffering from mastitis in Belgium and to compare their genotypic as well as phenotypic characteristics. Pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and PCR-based typing techniques (MLST, spa, SCCmec, and agr typing) have been a...

OBJECTIVES The objectives of this study were to determine the prevalence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) colonization in livestock and related workers in four Chinese provinces and the characteristics of these isolates. METHODS Nasal swabs were collected from animals and farm workers in four Chinese provinces. MRSA isolates were recovered and characterized by PFGE, Panto...

OBJECTIVES It is common wisdom that persistent carriage of Staphylococcus aureus is more frequent in young children than in adults. The objectives of this study were to assess the S. aureus temporal carriage pattern among a healthy community of pre-school children, with concomitant description of genotype diversity, toxin-encoding genes and antibiotic resistance. METHODS Among 333 children 3-...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strains are divided into Community Associated (CA-) and Hospital Associated (HA-) MRSA. These strains vary in antimicrobial resistance and pathogenicity. S. aureus is one of the most common microorganisms in ocular infections. This study was aimed to determine antimicrobial resistance patterns and genetic characteristi...

BACKGROUND The incidence of pediatric infections due to community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA), including children with no identifiable risk factors, has increased worldwide in the last decade. This suggests that healthy children may constitute a reservoir of MRSA in the community. In this study, nested within a larger one on nasopharyngeal ecology, we aimed ...

Typing of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is important in infection control and surveillance. The current nomenclature of MRSA includes the genetic background of the S. aureus strain determined by multilocus sequence typing (MLST) or equivalent methods like spa typing and typing of the mobile genetic element staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec), which carries the m...

Objective: To determine the prevalence of spondyloarthritis (SpA) in the Caucasian population of Terceira Island, Azores. Methods: Study subjects were recruited from people over the age of 50 years from one half of the island of Terceira (n=24 561). Seventy eight men and 78 women from each five year age group were selected, giving a total of 468 men and 468 women available for study, of whom 49...