Original Scientific Article
Detection of Staphylococcus aureus among coagulase positive staphylococci from animal origin based on conventional and molecular methods
Nikolina Velizarova Rusenova * ,
Anton Georgiev Rusenov

Mac Vet Rev 2017; 40 (1): 29 - 36

10.1515/macvetrev-2016-0095

Received: 07 July 2016

Received in revised form: 14 September 2016

Accepted: 17 October 2016

Available Online First: 15 November 2016

Published on: 15 March 2017

Correspondence: Nikolina Velizarova Rusenova, n_v_n_v@abv.bg
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Abstract

The present study aimed to detect Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) among other coagulase positive staphylococci from animal origin by using conventional methods (biochemical tests and latex agglutination) and a molecular method, based on the nuc gene, as the gold standard and to assess the usefulness of these methods. For this purpose, total of 344 staphylococcal isolates were collected and analysed. A total of 156 isolates suspicious for S. aureus were detected by a conventional biochemical method – 88 from cows, 18 from goats, 7 from pigs, 17 from poultry, 7 from rabbits and 19 from dogs. The majority of S. aureus strains gave typical biochemical reactions with the exception of 30 (19.2%) and 25 (16%) that were VP negative and weak positive in fermenting mannitol, respectively. Twelve strains were found to be non-haemolytic (7.7%) and four strains did not ferment trehalose (2.6%). Other staphylococci were identified as S. pseudintermedius (n = 103), S. hyicus (n = 23) and the rest were coagulase-negative staphylococci. Latex agglutination test resulted in rapid positive reactions with S. aureus with exception of 5 strains (3.2%) from cow mastitis milk. Positive agglutination reactions were also established with S. pseudintermedius, and S. hyicus. PCR confirmed all strains that were preliminary identified as S. aureus by amplification of 270 bp fragment of nuc gene specific for this species. The atypical reactions in certain strains established in this study have shown that the precise detection of S. aureus from animal origin should be done by combination of conventional and molecular methods.

Keywords: Staphylococcus aureus, biochemical method, latex agglutination, nuc gene, animals

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Copyright

© 2016 Rusenova N. This is an open-access article publishedunder the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License whichpermits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,provided the original author and source are credited.

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors declared that they have no potential conflict of interest with respect to the authorship and/or publication of this article.

Citation Information

Macedonian Veterinary Review. Volume 40, Issue 1, Pages 29-36, p-ISSN 1409-7621, e-ISSN 1857-7415, DOI: 10.1515/macvetrev-2016-0095, 2017

The all content of the Macedonian Veterinary Review, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License.