Nasal Carriage of Staphylococcus aureus in Goat

Abstract

Staphylococcus aureus is an op¬portunistic pathogen having a spacious spectrum of inherent virulence factors, causing a wide range of infections like abscesses, mastitis, pneumonia and meningitis in mammals. The bacterium is one of the leading pathogens associated with antimicrobial resistance and the emergence of antibiotic-resistant strains, such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), is a worldwide problem in clinical medicine. Among all, nasal carriage of Staphylococcus aureus has been identified as a risk factor for community-acquired and nosocomial infections. Therefore, this study was carried out in goat to estimate the prevalence of the nasal carriage of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). A total of 153 nasal swab samples were collected from goat admitted to Shahedul Alam Quadary Teaching Veterinary Hospital (SAQTVH), Chattogram Veterinary and Animal Sciences University following standard procedures. A questionnaire was used to collect necessary data which is related to this study. At first, Staphylococcus aureus from nasal swab was identified by conventional bacteriological method like observing cultural characteristics, Gram’s staining and also by biochemical test. Then, the positive samples were investigated for antimicrobial sensitivity testing (AST) to identify Oxacillin (OX) and Cefoxitin (FOX) resistant organism which was initially recognized as a methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Finally, mecA gene of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) from nasal swab was identified by PCR against mecA primer. A total of 7 nasal swab samples were identified to mecA gene positive. The results revealed that, Methicillin-Resistant (mecA) Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) was present at the proportion of 4.58% in case total (N=153) samples and was present at the proportion of 21.88% in case of only cultural and biochemical test positive samples. The prevalence of Staphylococcus aureus mecA gene infection in goat was 7.14% (95% CI) in less than 1 year of age, 3.92% (95% CI) in 1-2 years of age and 4.05% (95% CI) in more than 3 years of age and among infection in goat was 3.70% (95% CI) in case of male and 5.05% (95% CI) in case of female which was greater in this study.