Spa typing and virulence attributes of multidrug-resistant staphylococcus aureus in goat: A veterinary hospital-based cross-sectional study

Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) not only causes significant loss of livestock production but also has potential public health risks. This study was conducted with the objective of characterizing the antibiogram of S. aureus from goats attending a Teaching Veterinary Hospital in Bangladesh. We aimed to study the spa type, potential virulence factor(s), and the presence of methicillin and vancomycin resistance genes in the isolates. From a total of 200 goat nasal swab samples S. aureus was confirmed by PCR. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed using the disc diffusion method followed by mecA and vanA gene PCR. Staphy-lococcal protein A (spa) typing was conducted for selected isolates. A set of major virulence determinants, including sea, seb, pvl, and tst were investigated by PCR. A total 11.5% (n=23) of S. aureus isolates were obtained. Ciprofloxacin resistance was the highest (100%; n=23) followed by cefoxitin (74%; n=17). About 91% of the isolates (n=21) were multidrug-resistant (resistant to ≥3 antimicrobial classes). One (6%) isolate was MRSA harboring mecA. Among 13 vancomycin-resistant isolates, three (23%) were vanA-positive. Of the virulence genes screened, sea was recorded in four (17%) isolates. The spa typing of two randomly selected strains revealed that one isolate belonged to spa type t5259, and the other seemed to be novel. Goats having cutaneous and mucosal lesions had higher S. aureus carriage (P=0.01) with a significant variation across the breeds (P= 0.02). This study provides insights into S. aureus strains circulating in the goat population in Bangladesh.