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. 2014 Jul 25;9(7):e100823.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0100823. eCollection 2014.

Transmission of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus CC398 from livestock veterinarians to their household members

Erwin Verkade  1 , Marjolein Kluytmans-van den Bergh  2 , Birgit van Benthem  3 , Brigitte van Cleef  4 , Miranda van Rijen  5 , Thijs Bosch  3 , Leo Schouls  3 , Jan Kluytmans  6
Affiliations

Transmission of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus CC398 from livestock veterinarians to their household members

Erwin Verkade et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

There are indications that livestock-associated MRSA CC398 has a reduced human-to-human transmissibility, limiting its impact on public health and justifying modified control measures. This study determined the transmissibility of MRSA CC398 from livestock veterinarians to their household members in the community as compared to MRSA non-CC398 strains. A one-year prospective cohort study was performed to determine the presence of MRSA CC398 in four-monthly nasal and oropharyngeal samples of livestock veterinarians (n = 137) and their household members (n = 389). In addition, a cross-sectional survey was performed to detect the presence of MRSA non-CC398 in hospital derived control patients (n = 20) and their household members (n = 41). Staphylococcus aureus isolates were genotyped by staphylococcal protein A (spa) typing and multiple-locus variable-number tandem repeat analysis (MLVA). Mean MRSA CC398 prevalence over the study period was 44% (range 41.6-46.0%) in veterinarians and 4.0% (range 2.8-4.7%) in their household members. The MRSA CC398 prevalence in household members of veterinarians was significantly lower than the MRSA non-CC398 prevalence in household members of control patients (PRR 6.0; 95% CI 2.4-15.5), indicating the reduced transmissibility of MRSA CC398. The impact of MRSA CC398 appears to be low at the moment. However, careful monitoring of the human-to-human transmissibility of MRSA CC398 remains important.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Flow chart of the recruitment of livestock veterinarians (A) and control patients (B).
Figure 2
Figure 2. Genotypic relatedness of 482 MRSA (A) and 1308 MSSA (B) isolates derived from livestock veterinarians (green), household members of veterinarians (red), control patients (blue) and household members of control patients (yellow), represented as a minimum spanning tree based on MLVA types (MT), which are displayed as circles. The size of each circle indicates the number of isolates with this particular type.
MLVA complexes are indicated in characters e.g. MC398 denotes MLVA complex 398.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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