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Street foods are one of the important sources of foodborne infections and Staphylococcus aureus is an important infectious agent transmitted through various sources including street foods. The methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) are of public health significance, hence the study was taken to assess the street foods as a source of MRSA, for which 430 street vended foods of animal origin (meat, milk, eggs and their products) and associated environmental samples were processed for isolation and characterization. A total of 52 (12.1%) S. aureus were isolated and resistant was observed to oxacillin (36.5%), cefoxitin (25%) and penicillin G (82.7%) by disc diffusion test. On genotypic screening, mecA and blaZ have detected in 17.3% and 69.2% isolates, respectively. The virulence typing identified nuc, coa, clfA, spA, FnbA and enterotoxin A (sea) genes in 100%, 96.2%, 30.8%, 55.8, 50% and 7.7% isolates, respectively. Genetic diversity among the isolates was observed by enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus PCR with a D value of 0.77. The presence of virulent MRSA in street vended foods trigger the public health concern and emphasis to educate the consumers and street food vendors about quality and safety of such foods.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) pattern and virulence genes of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) producing Escherichia coli from foods of animal origin were evaluated. Based on combination disc method and ESBL E test, 42 of the 213 E. coli isolates were confirmed as ESBL producers where a high presence was observed in raw foods (60.62%), environmental samples (46.73%) and ready to eat foods (42.99%) of which 31(26.49%), 3(6.97%) and 7(15.21%) samples harbored ESBL E. coli, respectively. Higher contamination rates were observed in samples collected from meat vendors (54.36%), milk vendors (48.88%) and egg vendors (45.20%) of which 16.1%, 11.11% and 2.05%, respectively were ESBL E. coli. Among the 42 ESBL isolates, 85.71% (36/42) were multidrug-resistant. On polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis, expression of beta-lactamase genes viz., blaCTXM was noted in 69.04% (29/42) ESBL isolates, blaTEM in 66.66% (28/42) and blaOXA-1 in 19.04% (8/42) isolates, while blaSHV was not detected in any of the isolates. Other AMR genes viz., blaAmpC, sul1, sul2, tet(A), tet(B), catI, dhfrI, aac(3)-IIa(aacC2), aph(3 0 )-Ia(aphA1), qnrB, qnrS were detected by PCR in 39,

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