Prevalence of Toxigenic and Methicillin Resistant Staphylococci in Poultry Chain Production

Staphylococci are a worldwide cause of human and animal infection and are considered to be of the most common causes of infections in birds. Enterotoxins produced by some staphylococcal species were recognized as a causative agent of staphylococcal food poisoning (SFP). Only enterotoxins produced by Staphylococcus aureus were as yet well characterized. Much less is known about enterotoxigenic potential of coagulase-negative species of genus Staphylococcus (CNS). It has been reported that enterotoxigenic CNS strains have been associated with human and animal infections and food poisoning. Samples collected from chicken production cycle (un hatched eggs, baby chicks, broilers, chicken meat and table eggs) in Luxor, Egypt were tested to investigate the presence of Staphylococcus species and detection of their enterotoxines genes with more special attention for detection of methicillin resistance gene (mec A). Samples were tested for S. aureus and CNS on the basis of cultural and biochemical properties and confirmed by PCR amplification of 16S rRNA and clfa gene. Results showed that the presence of Staphylococci were 50/150 (33.3%), 14% of the samples were S. aureus (21/150), while, 19.33% were CNS (29/150). mecA gene was detected in 66.7% and 51.7% among S. aureus and CNS respectively. Enterotoxins genes (seb, sec and see) were found in 5 (23.8%) of S. aureus with a percent of (9.5%) for seb and sec and (4.8%) for see, while sec and see were found in 6 (20.6%) of CNS. With a percent (10.3%) for each