Abstract

The antimicrobial sensitivity, toxin profiles, and agr genotyping of 70 Staphylococcus aureus isolates were determined. The evaluation of 10 antimicrobials showed that 88.5, 52.8, 40, and 25.7% of isolates were resistant to ampicillin, tetracycline, cefoxitin, and oxacillin, respectively. All isolates were sensitive to gentamicin. The prevalence of staphylococcal enterotoxin (SE) genes (sea, seb, sec, sed, see, seg, sei, and seh) and the toxic shock syndrome (tsst-1) gene were estimated by polymerase chain reaction (PCR); 95.7% of S. aureus carried the SE genes. The predominant gene was sed (75.7%), followed by sea and tsst-1 (58.5%), then see and sei (51.4%). The tsst-1 gene was found at a significantly higher rate among food isolates than clinical isolates (P= 0.003). The agr types were identified by multiplex PCR; agr II was more prevalent (58.5%) than agr I (25.7%) and agr III (20%).

Key words: Staphylococcus aureus, antibiotic resistance, enterotoxins, agr types.