Enterotoxin- and Antibiotic-Resistance-Encoding Genes Are Present in Both Coagulase-Positive and Coagulase-Negative Foodborne Staphylococcus Strains

Food poisoning by staphylococcal enterotoxins (SE) is a major cause of foodborne illness, often associated with coagulase-positive staphylococci (CPS). The increase in the number methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strains another problem CPS. However, reports association SE and coagulase-negative (CNS) are beginning to re-emerge. In this context, aim study investigate presence enterotoxin genes characterize phenotypic genotypic antimicrobial resistance 66 isolates spp. (47 CNS 19 CPS) recovered from ready-to-eat (RTE) street food sold Maputo, Mozambique. Seven virulence encoding (sea, seb, sec, sed see) two toxins (hlb sak) were screened multiplex PCR (MPCR). Antimicrobial against 12 antibiotics was evaluated disk diffusion method. penicillin, methicillin, vancomycin erythromycin (blaZ, mecA, vancA, vancB, ermA, ermB ermC) also PCR. At least one seven assessed detected 57.9% 51% CPS isolates, respectively. most frequent gene hlb (47.4%), followed sec (15.8%) sea, seb 5.3% each. (36.2%) sak (17%), (14.9%), (12.8%) (6.4%). Five twelve which antibiotic-resistant. All harboring (n = 27, 57.4%) antimicrobial-resistant. prevalence multidrug higher (59.6%) than (26.3%) isolates. Regarding antibiotic-resistance genes, blaZ (penicillin-resistant) both (42.1%) (87.2%), mecA (encoding methicillin resistance) vancA (vancomycin-resistant), represented 36.8% 31.6% 46.8% vancomycin-resistant has been increasing worldwide and, our knowledge, first report occurrence These results emphasize need parallel CPS, as constitute public health hazards, given their potential produce spread genes.