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. 2023 Feb 21:16:100516.
doi: 10.1016/j.onehlt.2023.100516. eCollection 2023 Jun.

Clonal dissemination of successful emerging clone mecA-MRSA t304/ST6 among humans and hedgehogs in the Helsinki metropolitan area in Finland

Johansson Venla  1 , Al-Mustapha Ahmad  1 , Heljanko Viivi  1 , Lindholm Laura  2 , Salmenlinna Saara  2 , Sainmaa Sanna  3 , Heikinheimo Annamari  1   4
Affiliations

Clonal dissemination of successful emerging clone mecA-MRSA t304/ST6 among humans and hedgehogs in the Helsinki metropolitan area in Finland

Johansson Venla et al. One Health. .

Abstract

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) carrying mecC gene (mecC-MRSA) is frequently reported among European hedgehogs (Europeaus erineaus) due to co-evolutionary adaptation to dermatophyte infection in European hedgehogs. The occurrence of MRSA in European hedgehogs in Finland is unknown. Consequently, we investigated the occurrence of MRSA in wild hedgehogs from urban Helsinki metropolitan area in 2020-2021 and applied whole genome sequencing (WGS) to further characterize the studied isolates and compared them with human clinical MRSA isolates. Altogether 115 dead hedgehogs were screened for MRSA using selective cultivation methods. Presumptive MRSA isolates were tested for antimicrobial susceptibility and confirmed MRSA isolates were further characterized by spa-typing and WGS. Hedgehog derived MRSA isolates were compared with clinical human MRSA isolates using core genome multilocus sequence typing (cgMLST). In total MRSA was recovered from 11 out of 115 (10%) hedgehogs. Among these four different spa types (t304; n = 4, t8835; n = 4, t5133; n = 2 and t622; n = 1) and three different sequence types (STs) (ST6; n = 6, ST7663; n = 4 and ST2840; n = 1) were identified. From the studied MRSA isolates seven harboured the mecA gene (mecA-MRSA) and four were identified as mecC-MRSA. All mecA-MRSA isolates carried immune evasion cluster genes, and one isolate was positive for Panton-Valentine leukocidin. cgMLST comparison revealed close genetic relatedness among three hedgehog and two human mecA-MRSA isolates all belonging to t304/ST6. Our results suggest a clonal dissemination of a successful MRSA clone among humans and hedgehogs. Further studies are warranted to investigate the sources and dissemination of such clone in urban environments. We observed a relatively low occurrence of mecC-MRSA in Finnish hedgehogs.

Keywords: Antimicrobial resistance; Hedgehog; Human–wildlife interface; Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus; Wild animals; t304.

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Conflict of interest statement

None.

Figures

Unlabelled Image
Graphical abstract
Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Minimum spanning tree of all hedgehog MRSA (n = 11) and three human isolates illustrating their genetic relationship based on up to 1712 cgMLST target genes, pairwise ignoring missing values. The numbers represent the allelic differences between isolates. The isolates are denoted with spa type, isolate and isolation year. Each colour represents a sequence type (ST). Red: ST6, blue: ST2840 and green: ST7663. Asterisk sign denotes that the isolates originate from the same person. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
Supplementary Fig. 1
Supplementary Fig. 1
Minimum spanning tree of all hedgehog (n=4) and human (n=41) t304/ST6 mecA-MRSA isolates illustrating their genetic relationship based on up to 1,512 cgMLST target genes, with no missing values. The numbers represent the allelic differences between isolates. The isolates are denoted with isolation year. Red and white colour represents hedgehog and human derived isolates, respectively.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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