Characterization of Staphylococcus aureus strains isolated from faeces of healthy neonates and potential mother-to-infant microbial transmission through breastfeeding

  1. Benito, D. 1
  2. Lozano, C. 1
  3. Jiménez, E. 3
  4. Albújar, M. 4
  5. Gómez, A. 4
  6. Rodríguez, J.M. 23
  7. Torres, C. 1
  1. 1 Universidad de La Rioja
    info

    Universidad de La Rioja

    Logroño, España

    ROR https://ror.org/0553yr311

  2. 2 Universidad Complutense de Madrid
    info

    Universidad Complutense de Madrid

    Madrid, España

    ROR 02p0gd045

  3. 3 ProbiSearch, S.L., Tres Cantos, Madrid, Spain
  4. 4 Hospital Universitari de Tarragona Joan XXIII
    info

    Hospital Universitari de Tarragona Joan XXIII

    Tarragona, España

    ROR https://ror.org/05s4b1t72

Revista:
FEMS Microbiology Ecology

ISSN: 0168-6496

Any de publicació: 2015

Volum: 91

Número: 3

Pàgines: fiv007

Tipus: Article

DOI: 10.1093/FEMSEC/FIV007 SCOPUS: 2-s2.0-84942306907 GOOGLE SCHOLAR

Altres publicacions en: FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Resum

Twenty-one women and their respective singleton infants participated in this study, contributing with samples of breast milk and faeces (at days 7, 14 and 35 after birth), respectively, used for Staphylococcus aureus recovery. The aim was to track the carriage of S. aureus in milk and infant faeces of mother-infant pairs, and to determine the genetic lineages of the isolates, their potential clonal relationships and their content in antimicrobial resistance, virulence and immune evasion cluster genes. The molecular characterization was performed by PCR and sequencing. Clonal relationship among mother-infant isolates was conducted by spa typing, multilocus sequence typing (MLST), and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). Staphylococcus aureus was isolated from milk samples of 6 of 21 mothers (16 isolates) and from faecal samples of 12 of 21 infants (25 isolates). From these 41 S. aureus recovered, 18 were methicillin-resistant (MRSA) and 23 methicillin-susceptible (MSSA). Twelve diferentes spa types and eight sequence types were detected among S. aureus. Predominant clonal complexes were CC5 (43.9%) and CC30 (36.6%). MRSA strains presented a multidrug-resistance profile, 65.2% of MSSA strains harboured tsst-1 toxin gene and 26.8% of total strains carried the cna gene. A potential mother-to-infant S. aureus transmission was demonstrated in four cases by spa typing, MLST and PFGE (transmission of t322/ST5/CC5-PFGE-A, t136/ST34/CC30-PFGE-B and t021/ST1869/CC30-PFGE-C strains). Breastfeeding seems to contribute to early S. aureus intestinal colonization in neonates what might affect the immune system development. © FEMS 2014. All rights reserved.