Characterization, prevalence and antibiogram study of Staphylococcus aureus in poultry

Abstract Objective To reveal the presence of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus ( S. aureus ) (MRSA) in poultry samples and to determine the antibiogram pattern against five antibiotics. Methods Samples from different poultry farm of Chittagong city, Bangladesh were examined for S. aureus by different biochemical tests and confirmed as MRSA by identifying the presence of mecA gene using PCR. Antibiotic resistance pattern in S. aureus was determined by antibiotic disk diffusion method. Results In this study, a total of 60 samples (30 from nasal swabs and 30 from cloacal swabs) were used, of which 54 were confirmed as S. aureus by different biochemical tests. Among these, 12 were confirmed as MRSA by detecting mecA gene using PCR. During antibiogram study, both nasal and cloacal samples showed the highest resistance against penicillin-G and the lowest resistance was observed against neomycin. Conclusions Based on the present study, it can be said that different antibiotics are used extensively in poultry that leads to MRSA and is alarming for human health.