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Antimicrobial resistance and species identification of staphylococci isolated from the meat of wild rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) in Slovakia

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Abstract

In 2009, a total of 113 strains of staphylococci were isolated from the thigh muscles of ten hunted and 20 farmed wild rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) in the Slovak Republic. Only two isolates (1.8%) possessed coagulase activity, the rest of 111 staphylococcal isolates were coagulase-negative. Among them, six isolates (5.4%) showed the production of DNase. In each isolate, resistance to eight antibiotics by means of agar dilution test was tested. Based on these results, 110 isolates were found to be resistant to at least one antibiotic. Only one isolate was susceptible to all eight antibiotics tested. Another two isolates were susceptible, however, they showed intermediate susceptibility to cefoxitin. Resistance to ampicillin (78.8%), erythromycin (58.4%), penicillin (51.3%) and oxacillin (46.0%) was found most frequently. Twenty-six isolates (23.0%) were resistant to novobiocin. On the other hand, resistance to cefoxitin (8.0%) and gentamicin (1.8%) were quite rare. Fifteen percent of isolates were resistant to one antibiotic, simultaneous resistance to two, three, four and five antibiotics was confirmed in 22.1%, 23.9%, 21.2% and 13.3% of isolates, respectively. Except for two coagulase-positive Staphylococcus aureus isolates (1.8%), seven species of coagulase-negative staphylococci were identified using the MALDI BioTyper (TM) sytem as follows: Staphylococcus warneri (45.1%), Staphylococcus epidermidis (21.2%), Staphylococcus pasteuri (13.3%), Staphylococcus xylosus (8.0%), Staphylococcus capitis (7.1%), Staphylococcus haemolyticus (1.8%) and Staphylococcus cohnii ssp cohnii (1.8%).

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the projets VEGA 1/0661/08 and VEGA 1/0403/08.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Food Hygiene and Technology, University of Veterinary Medicine and Pharmacy, Komenského 73, 041 81, Košice, Slovak Republic

    Monika Pipová, Pavlina Jevinová, Ivana Regecová & Katarína Marušková

  2. Institute of Animal Physiology, Slovak Academy of Sciences Košice, Šoltésovej 4-6, 040 01, Košice, Slovak Republic

    Vladimír Kmeť

Authors
  1. Monika Pipová
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  2. Pavlina Jevinová
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  3. Vladimír Kmeť
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  4. Ivana Regecová
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  5. Katarína Marušková
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Correspondence to Monika Pipová.

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Communicated by C. Gortázar

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Pipová, M., Jevinová, P., Kmeť, V. et al. Antimicrobial resistance and species identification of staphylococci isolated from the meat of wild rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) in Slovakia. Eur J Wildl Res 58, 157–165 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-011-0558-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-011-0558-2

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