Abstract
Recent reports from the Netherlands document the emergence of novel multilocus sequence typing (MLST) types (e.g., ST-398) of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in livestock, particularly swine. In Eastern North Carolina (NC), one of the densest pig farming areas in the United States, as many as 14% of MRSA isolates from active case finding in our medical center have no matches in a repetitive sequence-based polymerase chain reaction (rep-PCR) library. The current study was designed to determine if these non-matched MRSA (NM-MRSA) were geographically associated with exposure to pig farming in Eastern NC. While residential proximity to farm waste lagoons lacked association with NM-MRSA in a logistic regression model, a spatial cluster was identified in the county with highest pig density. Using MLST, we found a heterogeneous distribution of strain types comprising the NM-MRSA isolates from the most pig dense regions, including ST-5 and ST-398. Our study raises the warning that patients in Eastern NC harbor livestock associated MRSA strains are not easily identifiable by rep-PCR. Future MRSA studies in livestock dense areas in the U.S. should investigate further the role of pig–human interactions.
Original language | English (US) |
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Article number | 3418 |
Journal | International journal of environmental research and public health |
Volume | 16 |
Issue number | 18 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Sep 2 2019 |
Keywords
- Cluster detection
- Livestock
- MLST
- MRSA
- North Carolina
- Rep-PCR
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
- Pollution
- Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis