Persistence of <i>S. aureus</i> nasal carriage in rhesus macaques.

<p>Macaques were duo-housed. Physical contact to the macaques in the neighbouring cage was possible. Each block indicates an animal room, horizontal lines in blocks indicate which macaques were not able to have physical contact. Red color indicates the “epidemic” strain in each room. – indicates a <i>S. aureus</i> negative nasal culture. * indicates that the isolate was not <i>spa</i> genotyped itself, <i>spa</i> type was derived from typed isolates with identical PFGE pattern. § indicates that the isolate was not <i>spa</i> genotyped, and this could not be derived from typed isolates with identical PFGE pattern. <i>S. aureus</i> strains were frequently exchanged between macaques in the same room.