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Methicillin- and Vancomycin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus and Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci Isolated from Hospital Foods: Prevalence and Antimicrobial Resistance Patterns

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Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of Methicillin- and Vancomycin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA, VRSA) and Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococcus (VRE) of hospital food samples in Mashhad, Iran. A total of 357 hospital food samples were collected from 13 hospitals. Enterococcus spp. and Staphylococcus aureus were identified using conventional cultural techniques following genotypic confirmation by PCR. The antibiotic resistance patterns of MRSA, VRSA, and VRE strains were analyzed using the disk diffusion methods. The prevalence of S. aureus and MRSA were 24.37% (87/357) and 22.98% (20.87), respectively. In addition, the vanB gene involved in vancomycin resistance was detected in 1.14% of the S. aureus strains. Enterococci and VRE had a prevalence of 15.4% (55/357) and 21.81% (12/55), respectively. Meat, chicken barbecues, and salad were the most commonly contaminated samples with S. aureus, MRSA, Enterococci, and VRE. PCR detected two vancomycin resistance genes, including vanA (1.81%, 1.55) and vanC2 (20%, 11.55) genes. MRSA strains revealed the highest resistance against penicillin, erythromycin, clindamycin, azithromycin, tetracycline, and gentamicin. The VRSA isolates were resistant to penicillin, ampicillin, oxacillin, cefoxitin, clindamycin, erythromycin, gentamicin, and trimethoprim–sulfamethoxazole. Furthermore, VRE isolates exhibited the highest resistance against quinupristin-dalfopristin, erythromycin, and tetracycline. The results of this study indicated that hospital foods might act as a reservoir of Enterococci spp. and S. aureus strains, which can transfer antibiotic resistance. Moreover, multidrug resistance (MDR) in some MRSA, VRSA, and VRE isolates represents a serious threat to susceptible persons in hospitals.

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Data Availability

The dataset used is available from the corresponding author (email: saramohamadi12@yahoo.com), upon judicious request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors sincerely appreciate all those who participated in this study.

Funding

The financial support acquired from Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences (Grant No: A-1581).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Nutrition, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran

    Asma Afshari, Sanaz Taheri, Mohammad Hashemi, Abdolreza Norouzy & Mohsen Nematy

  2. Department of Food Hygiene and Quality Control, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Shahre-Kord University, Shahre-kord, Iran

    Sara Mohamadi

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  1. Asma Afshari
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  2. Sanaz Taheri
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Contributions

The authors confirm contribution to the paper as follows: study conception and design, AA and MH; data collection, ST; analysis and interpretation of results, AA, ST, AN, SM, and MN; writing the manuscripts, SM.

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Correspondence to Sara Mohamadi.

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Afshari, A., Taheri, S., Hashemi, M. et al. Methicillin- and Vancomycin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus and Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci Isolated from Hospital Foods: Prevalence and Antimicrobial Resistance Patterns. Curr Microbiol 79, 326 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-022-03022-0

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