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. 2020 Jan 18;17(2):623.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph17020623.

Environmental Contamination Prevalence, Antimicrobial Resistance and Molecular Characteristics of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus and Staphylococcus Epidermidis Isolated from Secondary Schools in Guangzhou, China

Yingying Wang  1 , Jialing Lin  2 , Ting Zhang  3 , Suiping He  1 , Ying Li  1 , Wencui Zhang  1 , Xiaohua Ye  1 , Zhenjiang Yao  1
Affiliations

Environmental Contamination Prevalence, Antimicrobial Resistance and Molecular Characteristics of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus and Staphylococcus Epidermidis Isolated from Secondary Schools in Guangzhou, China

Yingying Wang et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Staphylococcus epidermidis (MRSE), the most prevalent causes of hospital-associated and community-associated infections, could exist on frequently touched surfaces. This study aims to determine the contamination prevalence and the characteristics of MRSA and MRSE isolated from secondary school environments. Methods: We collected environmental samples from ten secondary schools in Guangzhou city between October 2016 and January 2017. The samples were confirmed for MRSA and MRSE isolates by using biochemical tests and polymerase chain reactions. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed by the Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method. Staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec) typing, toxin gene screening, and multilocus sequence typing (MLST) were performed to further characterize the isolates. Data were analyzed by two-sample proportion tests. Results: A total of 1830 environmental samples were collected. The prevalence of MRSA and MRSE contamination were 1.86% (34/1830) and 5.14% (94/1830), respectively. The proportions of multidrug resistance in both MRSA (58.82%) and MRSE (63.83%) isolates were high. Seven clonal complexes (CC) and 12 sequence types (ST) were identified, with the CC5 (35.29%) and ST45 (25.53%) being the most prevalent. We found that 44.12% of the MRSA isolates were community-acquired and the main type was ST45-SCCmec IV. We found that 5.88% and 32.35% of MRSA isolates were positive to Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) and toxic shock syndrome toxin-1 (tst) gene, respectively. No MRSE isolate was positive to the toxin genes. Conclusion: Our findings raise potential public health concerns for environmental contamination of MRSA and MRSE in school environments. Surfaces of school environments may potentially provide a source for cross-contamination with these bacteria into the wider community.

Keywords: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus; Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus epidermidis; antimicrobial resistance; contamination; molecular characteristics; school environment.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Antibiotic resistance rate of MRSA and MRSE isolates. Note: * There was a statistically significant difference, p < 0.05.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Proportions of antibiotic resistance between MDR-MRSA and MDR-MRSE isolates.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Clonal dendrogram and detailed information of MRSA isolates.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Minimum spanning tree of sequence types of MRSA isolates.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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