A preliminary evaluation of a new selective agar supplemented with desferrioxamine for detection of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the performance of two new selective screening agars, Colombia agar supplemented with 1000 mg/L desferrioxamine, 5 mg/L amphotericin B, 16 mg/L polymyxin B, and 2 mg/L methicillin (CMDAP agar) or 0.5 mg/L oxacillin (CODAP agar), for detection of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Both the CMDAP and the CODAP agar effectively inhibited growth of 151 isolates of coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS), 45 of Enterobacteriaceae and six Candida spp. examined. The sensitivity and specificity of the CMDAP and CODAP agars for detection of MRSA was calculated by comparing the growth of 52 MRSA with the inhibition of 74 mecA negative S. aureus and of 151 CoNS. The performance of the new agars was compared with four previously described MRSA screening agars. The sensitivity and specificity for detection of MRSA after incubation at 35 degrees C for 24 h was 0.94 and 0.91, respectively, for the CMDAP agar, 0.60 and 0.90 for the CODAP agar, 0.98 and 0.57 for methicillin aztreonam mannitol salt agar (MAMSA), 0.23 and 0.84 for oxacillin mannitol salt agar (OMSA), 0.48 and 0.76 for oxacillin Mueller-Hinton agar (OMHA) and 0.75 and 0.77 for lithium oxacillin mannitol salt agar (LOMSA). Agars supplemented with desferrioxamine, CMDAP and CODAP, were more specific for detecting MRSA compared with agars not supplemented with desferrioxamine. The detection rate was higher for agars supplemented with methicillin than for agars supplemented with oxacillin.