Incidence of Community Acquired Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (CA- MRSA) in seafood and its environment, Gujarat, India

Abstract

Incidence of CA-MRSA in seafood and its environment was monitored, between 2011 to 2015 and for this purpose a total of 1552 seafood samples were drawn from both retail outlets and fish processing industry that include 379 chilled whole cleaned fish, 308 fresh fish, 614 frozen whole cleaned fish, 124 numbers of processed fish and prawn, 76 water and 51 ice samples. All the confirmed Staphylococci isolates (n= 88) were screened for methicillin resistance on MRSA selective plates and were subjected to Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) to screen for Panton- Valentine Leukocidine genes which are associated with CA-MRSA. A total of 14 MRSA (15.91%) were positive for lukS gene. This study is significant as it is the first study to detect the presence of CA-MRSA in seafood in India.