Molecular characterization of clonal lineage and staphylococcal toxin genes fromS. aureusin Southern Nigeria

Abstract

BackgroundStaphylococcus aureusis a human colonizer with high potential for virulence, and the spread of the virulent strains from the colonized hosts to non-carriers in the community is on the increase. However, there are few reports on comprehensive analysis of staphylococcal enterotoxin (SE) genes with clonal lineage inS. aureusin Africa. This is essential because of diversity of cultures and habits of the people. This study analyzed spa types and enterotoxin genes inS. aureusstrains previously isolated from the human nostrils, poultry and clinical samples in Southern Nigeria.MethodsForty-sevenS. aureusisolates were obtained from humans nostrils (n = 13), clinical strains (n = 21) and poultry (n = 13) from previous studies in Southern Nigeria. The strains were analyzed formecAgene, selected toxins genes (sea, seb, sec, sed, see, seg, seh, sei, sej, sek, sel, sem, sen, seo, sep, seq, ser, seu)and Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) gene(lukS-PV/lukF-PV)by PCR. Population structures of the strains were detected by Staphylococcal protein A (spa) typing.ResultsTwenty different spa types were obtained with the highest percentages, 17% observed inspatype t091 from clinical, nasal and poultry samples while t069 was the most prevalent spa type in poultry. Two MRSA were only detected in human strains. The poultry strains had the highest occurrence of SE genes (18%) followed by nasal strains (15%) and clinical strains (10%). Eighty-nine percent of all tested isolates harbored at least one SE gene;seowas the most prevalent (34%) followed byseg(30%) andsea(21%), whilesec, seeandsejwere absent in all strains. Spa type t355 was associated withlukS-PV/lukF-PVgene and complete absence of all studied SE.Sea, seq, seb, sekwere associated with spa type t069;seawas associated with t127 whilesepwas associated with spa type t091. There were coexistences ofseo/segandsei/seg.ConclusionsThe higher carriage of staphylococci enterotoxin genes by the nasal and poultryS. aureusstrains suggests a high potential of spread of staphylococcal food poisoning through poultry and healthy carriers in the community. This is the first report of high occurrence of staphylococcal enterotoxins genes in poultry from Nigeria.