Food handlers as potential sources of dissemination of virulent strains of Staphylococcus aureus in the community

Abstract

The prevalence of S. aureus was 19.8% in the nose and 11.1% on the hands; 6.2% of the individuals carried S. aureus both in their noses and hands, and three individuals had the same strain (PFGE type) in the nose and on the hands. Although 82% of the isolates were resistant to at least one antibiotic, none demonstrated the presence of either mecA gene or resistance to oxacillin (none identified as MRSA). Sixty-eight percent of the isolates from the nose and hands possessed enterotoxin genes. This study revealed a high prevalence of antibiotic resistance and virulence determinants among the isolates, including not only classical and novel enterotoxin genes but also major virulence factors such as tst. Potential dissemination of these strains in the community is a matter of concern.

Retracted: Pathogenic Staphylococcus aureus in hospital food samples; prevalence and antimicrobial resistance properties

“…We found that 10.28% of hospital food samples were contaminated with S. aureus strains which were entirely considerable. This prevalence rate of S. aureus in hospital food sample was higher than that of Gutiérrez et al () (Spain, 6.10% in food samples), Hanson et al () (United States, 6.90% in beef), while was lower than those of Yang et al () (China, 12.50% in ready to eat foods), Jackson, Davis, & Barrett, (United States, 45–63% in beef and pork), Caggiano et al () (Italy, 26.30% in nasal swab samples of food industry workers), Kasturwar and Shafee () (Maharashtra, 36.14% prevalence of MRSA in food handlers), Castro, Santos, Meireles, Silva, and Teixeira () (Portugal, 19.80% in nasal and 11.10% in hand swabs of food handlers), Ferreira et al () (Brazil, 50% in food handlers of hospitals), Dagnew, Tiruneh, Moges, and Tekeste () (Ethiopia, 20.50% in food handlers), de Jonge, Verdier, and Havelaar () (the Netherlands, 14.28% in meat samples), SergeliDiS et al () (Greece, 27% in ready to eat salad), Bunnueang et al () (Thailand, 83% in hospital foods), and Momtaz, Dehkordi, Rahimi, Ezadi, and Arab () (Iran, 28.05% in chicken meat). Findings of our previous study (F. S. Dehkordi et al, ) revealed that the prevalence of MRSA strains in raw hospital food samples with animal origin, cooked hospital food samples with animal origin and hospital food samples without animal origin were 16.66%, 9.09% and 4.08% which showed the higher prevalence of bacteria in raw food samples with animal origin.…”

Retracted: Antibiotic resistance properties and genotypic characterization of enterotoxins in the Staphylococcus aureus strains isolated from traditional sweets

“…As far as we know, this is the highest prevalence rate of S. aureus in traditional sweet samples al‐around the world. The prevalence rate of the S. aureus in Iranian traditional sweet samples of our research was higher than those of Pakistan (6.70%) (Sahir, Mirani, Khan, Naz, & Khan, ), Japan (19.40%) (Shimamura, Kidokoro, & Murata, ), Brazil (12.00%) (Kroning et al, ), Spain (6.10%) (Gutiérrez et al, ), and Portugal (11.10%) (Castro, Santos, Meireles, Silva, & Teixeira, ). As the preparation of Iranian traditional sweet requires the use of milk, high prevalence of S. aureus strains in studied samples is maybe due to the use of contaminated milk.…”

Microbiological profile and nutritional quality of a regular diet compared to a neutropenic diet in a pediatric oncology unit

“…Bacillus cereus is a bacteria that is able to form thermoresistant spores . In contrast, coagulase‐positive Staphylococcu s is thermosensitive . All five of the contaminated food samples had gone through a cooking process.…”