Multi-drug resistant Staphylococcus aureus carriage in abattoir workers in Busia, Kenya

Abstract

Abattoir workers have been identified as high-risk for livestock-associated Staphylococcus aureus carriage. This study investigated S. aureus carriage in abattoir workers in Western Kenya. Nasal swabs were collected once from participants between February-November 2012. S. aureus was isolated using bacterial culture and antibiotic susceptibility testing performed using the VITEK 2 instrument and disc diffusion methods. Isolates underwent whole genome sequencing and Multi Locus Sequence Types were derived from these data. S. aureus (n = 126) was isolated from 118/737 (16.0%) participants. Carriage was higher in HIV-positive (24/89, 27.0%) than HIV–negative participants (94/648, 14.5%; p = 0.003). There were 23 sequence types (STs) identified, and half of the isolates were ST152 (34.1%) or ST8 (15.1%). Many isolates carried the Panton-Valentine leucocidin toxin gene (42.9%). Only three isolates were methicillin resistant S. aureus (MRSA) (3/126, 2.4%) and the prevalence of MRSA carriage was 0.4% (3/737). All MRSA were ST88. Isolates from HIV-positive participants (37.0%) were more frequently resistant to sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim compared to isolates from HIV-negative participants (6.1%; p < 0.001). Similarly, trimethoprim resistance genes were more frequently detected in isolates from HIV-positive (81.5%) compared to HIV-negative participants (60.6%; p = 0.044). S. aureus in abattoir workers were representative of major sequence types in Africa, with a high proportion being toxigenic isolates. HIV-positive individuals were more frequently colonized by antimicrobial resistant S. aureus which may be explained by prophylactic antimicrobial use.

Citation

Obanda, B.A., Gibbons, C.L., Fèvre, E.M., Bebora, L., Gitao, G., Ogara, W., Wang, S.-H., Gebreyes, W., Ngetich, R., Blane, B., Coll, F., Harrison, E.M., Kariuki, S., Peacock, S.J. and Cook, E.A.J. 2022. Multi-drug resistant Staphylococcus aureus carriage in abattoir workers in Busia, Kenya. Antibiotics 11(12): 1726.

Authors

  • Obanda, B.A.
  • Gibbons, C.L.
  • Fèvre, Eric M.
  • Bebora, L.
  • Gitao, G.
  • Ogara, W.
  • Wang, S.-H.
  • Gebreyes, W.
  • Ngetich, R.
  • Blane, B.
  • Coll, F.
  • Harrison, E.M.
  • Kariuki, S.
  • Peacock, S.J.
  • Cook, Elizabeth A.J.