Occurrence of Staphylococcus spp. in the wastewaters from Iran: Diversity, antimicrobial resistance, and virulence potential

• Main Authors: Mahsa Ranjbar Omid (Author), Houshang Jamali (Author), Farshid Kafilzadeh (Author), Amir Borjian (Author), Mohsen Arzanlou (Author)
• Format: Book
• Published: IWA Publishing, 2023-02-01T00:00:00Z.
• Subjects: article
• Online Access: Connect to this object online.
• Notes: 1477-8920; 1996-7829; 10.2166/wh.2023.199
• Keywords: coagulase-negative staphylococci; coagulase-positive staphylococci; drug resistance; pathogenic factors; sewage; slaughterhouse; Public aspects of medicine; RA1-1270
• Source: Journal of Water and Health, Vol 21, Iss 2, Pp 178-191 (2023)

The prevalence, antibiotic resistance, and virulence characteristics of Staphylococci from hospitals, livestock, municipals, and poultry wastewaters were investigated in Ardabil, Iran. From 155 staphylococcal isolates, 44.5% were coagulase-positive Staphylococcus (CoPS) and 55.5% were coagulase-negative Staphylococcus (CoNS) spp. Both CoPS and CoNS species were mainly found in hospital and poultry wastewater samples. The most prominent CoPS and CoNS species were Staphylococcus aureus at 80% and Staphylococcus xylosus at 37%. Methicillin resistance was found in 2% of S. aureus isolates. Overall, 49.2% of CoPS and 47.6% of CoNS isolates exhibited multidrug resistance phenotypes. CoPS isolates were the most resistant to penicillin (89%) and erythromycin (62%) and CoNS isolates exhibited the highest resistance to erythromycin (55%) and tetracycline (49%). Inducible clindamycin resistance was detected in 11% of S. aureus isolates. The ermC and aac genes were detected as the most common macrolide-lincosamide-streptogramin B and aminoglycoside-resistance encoding genes in 82.5 and 22.5% of S. aureus isolates, respectively. Most of the S. aureus isolates were positive for multiple virulence factors. The methicillin-resistant S. aureus isolates belonged to SCCmec type V. A new spa type t19215 was also identified. The occurrence of multidrug-resistant S. aureus with diverse genetic resistance and virulence background in wastewater is of great health concern. HIGHLIGHTS Ten coagulase-negative and four coagulase-positive Staphylococcus spp. were identified in wastewaters in Iran.; 50% of both coagulase-negative and coagulase-positive Staphylococcus spp. isolates were multidrug-resistant.; Occurrence of methicillin-resistant S. aureus was rare in wastewater samples in Iran.; S. aureus isolates with high virulence potentials were common.; A new spa type t19215 was identified in S. aureus isolates.;