Multidrug Resistant Coagulase-Positive Staphylococcus aureus and Their Enterotoxins Detection in Traditional Cheeses Marketed in Banat Region, Romania

Adriana Morar; Alexandra Ban-Cucerzan; Viorel Herman; Emil Tîrziu; Khalid Ibrahim Sallam; Samir Mohammed Abd-Elghany; Kálmán Imre

doi:10.3390/antibiotics10121458

Multidrug Resistant Coagulase-Positive Staphylococcus aureus and Their Enterotoxins Detection in Traditional Cheeses Marketed in Banat Region, Romania

Antibiotics (Basel). 2021 Nov 26;10(12):1458. doi: 10.3390/antibiotics10121458.

Authors

Adriana Morar¹, Alexandra Ban-Cucerzan¹, Viorel Herman², Emil Tîrziu¹, Khalid Ibrahim Sallam³, Samir Mohammed Abd-Elghany³, Kálmán Imre¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Animal Production and Veterinary Public Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Banat's University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine "King Michael I of Romania" from Timişoara, 300645 Timisoara, Romania.
² Department of Infectious Diseases and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Banat's University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine "King Michael I of Romania" from Timişoara, 300645 Timisoara, Romania.
³ Department of Food Hygiene and Control, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Mansoura University, Mansoura 35511, Egypt.

Abstract

The main objectives of the present study were to determine the occurrence of coagulase positive staphylococci (CPS) and to assess the presence and antimicrobial susceptibility profile of Staphylococcus aureus isolates in different raw milk origin (cow and sheep) traditional cheeses marketed in Banat region, Romania. Additionally, the presence of mecA gene in S. aureus isolates and the staphylococcal enterotoxins (SEs) in cheese samples were evaluated. A total of 81.6% (138/169) of the screened samples were positive for CPS. Furthermore, 35.5% (49/138) of the investigated CPS positive cheese samples were contaminated with S. aureus, with an isolation frequency of 46.6% (14/30) in caș, 33.3% (32/96) in telemea, 25% (2/8) in burduf, and 25% (1/4) in urdă assortments, respectively. From the total number of S. aureus isolates, 6.1% (3/49) harbored the mecA gene. Detectable levels of SEs were identified in 4.3% (4/94) of cheese samples with a CPS contamination level higher than 10⁵ log CFU g^-1. The expressed antimicrobial susceptibility profile of the tested cheese-origin S. aureus isolates, with the automated Vitek 2 equipment, showed resistance towards amikacin (90.1%, 10 out from 11 tested), enrofloxacin (86.2%, 25/29), ceftiofur (72.7%, 8/11), neomycin (63.6%, 7/11), benzylpenicillin (53.1%, 26/49), kanamycin (41.4%, 12/29), rifampicin (39.5%, 15/38), tetracycline (38.8%, 19/49), tilmicosin (36.4%, 4/11), clindamycin (30.6%, 15/49), ciprofloxacin (30%, 6/20), erythromycin (22.4%, 11/49), tylosin (18.2%, 2/11), oxacillin (16.3%, 8/49), linezolid (15%, 3/20), teicoplanin (15%, 3/20), fusidic acid (13.1%), imipenem (10.5%, 4/38), vancomycin (7.9%, 3/38), ampicillin (5.5%, 1/18), mupirocin (5.5%, 1/18), fosfomycin (5%, 1/20), and gentamicin (4.1%, 2/49). Twenty-four (49%) S. aureus isolates exhibited multidrug resistance. The investigation highlighted a common occurrence of multidrug-resistant S. aureus strains in the monitored cheese assortments, which can constitute a potential risk for consumers' health.

Keywords: coagulase-positive staphylococci; multidrug resistant S. aureus; staphylococcal enterotoxins; traditional cheeses.