Whole genome sequencing of methicillin-resistant and methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus isolated from 4 horses in a veterinary teaching hospital and its ambulatory service.
Abstract: Genomic characterization was conducted on 2 methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strains isolated from 2 horses hospitalized during an overlapping period of time and 2 methicillin-sensitive S. aureus (MSSA) strains isolated from 2 distinct horses. Phylogenetic proximity was traced and the genotypic and phenotypic characteristics of the antimicrobial resistance of the strains were compared. Whole genome sequencing of MRSA strains for this report was similar but differed from whole genome sequencing of MSSA strains. The MRSA strains were closely related, belonging to sequence type (ST) 612, spa type t1257, and SCCmec type IVd2B. The MSSA strains were also closely related, belonging to ST1660, spa type t3043, and having no detectable staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec elements. All MSRA and MSSA strains were Panton-Valentine leukocidin negative. There were discrepancies in the genotypic analysis and the antimicrobial susceptibility testing (phenotypic analysis) of MRSA strains for rifampin, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, gentamicin, amikacin, and enrofloxacin. La caractérisation génomique a été effectuée sur deux souches de Staphylococcus aureus résistantes à la méticilline (SARM) isolées de deux chevaux hospitalisés sur une période de chevauchement, et de deux S. aureus sensibles à la méticilline (SASM) isolés de deux chevaux distincts. Leur proximité phylogénétique a été retracée. Les caractéristiques génotypiques et phénotypiques de la résistance aux antimicrobiens de ces souches ont été comparées.Le séquençage complet du génome des souches de SARM pour ce rapport était similaire, mais différent du séquençage complet du génome des souches de SASM. Les souches de SARM étaient étroitement apparentées, appartenant à la séquence type (ST) 612, au spa type t1257 et au SCCmec type IVd2B. Les souches MSSA étaient étroitement apparentées appartenant au ST1660, spa type t3043 et aucun élément de la cassette contenant le gène mec n’a été détecté. Toutes les souches MSRA et MSSA étaient négatives pour la leucocidine Panton-Valentine. Il y avait des divergences entre l’analyse génotypique et les tests de sensibilité aux antimicrobiens (phénotype) des souches de SARM pour la rifampicine, le triméthoprime-sulfaméthoxazole, la gentamicine, l’amikacine et l’enrofloxacine.(Traduit par les auteurs).
Copyright and/or publishing rights held by the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association.
Publication Date: 2021-07-13 PubMed ID: 34248267PubMed Central: PMC8243796
The Equine Research Bank provides access to a large database of publicly available scientific literature. Inclusion in the Research Bank does not imply endorsement of study methods or findings by Mad Barn.
- Journal Article
Summary
This research summary has been generated with artificial intelligence and may contain errors and omissions. Refer to the original study to confirm details provided. Submit correction.
The research article is a genomic examination of two strains each of antibiotic-resistant and antibiotic-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus bacteria isolated from horses, uncovering similarities within each pair and differences between pairs, as well as revealing discrepancies between genotypic analysis and phenotypic antimicrobial susceptibility testing.
Research Overview
The study focused on conducting a whole genome sequencing of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) strains. These strains were isolated from four different horses, with an aim to:
- Decipher their phylogenetic proximity
- Compare their genotypic and phenotypic characteristics
- Analyze their resistance, or sensitivity, towards antimicrobial drugs
Methodology and Findings
Genomic characterization was conducted on the four Staphylococcus aureus strains.
- The MRSA strains, isolated from two horses that were hospitalized during an overlapping period, were found to be closely related. They belonged to sequence type 612 and had specific SCC and type identifiers.
- On the other hand, the MSSA strains, isolated from two distinct horses, were also closely related but belonged to a different sequence type, ST1660. They lacked any detectable staphylococcal cassette chromosome elements.
Interestingly, all the strains of both MRSA and MSSA were found to be Panton-Valentine leukocidin negative.
Discrepancies Encountered
A notable aspect of this research was the identification of differences between the genotypic analysis and the actual biological susceptibility testing (phenotypic analysis) of MRSA strains for a variety of antimicrobial drugs. These differences highlight the complexities of antimicrobial resistance and suggest that genetic markers may not always align with the actual resistance of the bacteria.
Implications
The research highlights the importance of analyzing both genotypic and phenotypic characteristics of bacterial strains. As it shows, discrepancies between genotypic resistance patterns and real-world drug susceptibility may occur. It underlines the need for further research to better understand these discrepancies and provide more precise treatment models.
Cite This Article
APA
Morice P, Allano M, Provost C, Fairbrother JH, Gagnon CA, Sauvé F.
(2021).
Whole genome sequencing of methicillin-resistant and methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus isolated from 4 horses in a veterinary teaching hospital and its ambulatory service.
Can J Vet Res, 85(3), 218-223.
Publication
Researcher Affiliations
- Département de sciences cliniques (Morice, Allano, Sauvé) and Centre de recherche en infectiologie porcine et avicole (Provost, Gagnon), Faculté de médecine vétérinaire, Université de Montréal, 3200 Sicotte, Saint-Hyacinthe, Q J2S 2M2; Bacteriology Diagnostic Laboratory, Complexe de diagnostic et d'épidémiosurveillance vétérinaires du Québec, Ministère de l'Agriculture, des Pêcheries et de l'Alimentation du Québec and Faculté de médecine vétérinaire, Université de Montréal, 3200 Sicotte, Saint-Hyacinthe, Q J2S 2M2 (Fairbrother).
- Département de sciences cliniques (Morice, Allano, Sauvé) and Centre de recherche en infectiologie porcine et avicole (Provost, Gagnon), Faculté de médecine vétérinaire, Université de Montréal, 3200 Sicotte, Saint-Hyacinthe, Q J2S 2M2; Bacteriology Diagnostic Laboratory, Complexe de diagnostic et d'épidémiosurveillance vétérinaires du Québec, Ministère de l'Agriculture, des Pêcheries et de l'Alimentation du Québec and Faculté de médecine vétérinaire, Université de Montréal, 3200 Sicotte, Saint-Hyacinthe, Q J2S 2M2 (Fairbrother).
- Département de sciences cliniques (Morice, Allano, Sauvé) and Centre de recherche en infectiologie porcine et avicole (Provost, Gagnon), Faculté de médecine vétérinaire, Université de Montréal, 3200 Sicotte, Saint-Hyacinthe, Q J2S 2M2; Bacteriology Diagnostic Laboratory, Complexe de diagnostic et d'épidémiosurveillance vétérinaires du Québec, Ministère de l'Agriculture, des Pêcheries et de l'Alimentation du Québec and Faculté de médecine vétérinaire, Université de Montréal, 3200 Sicotte, Saint-Hyacinthe, Q J2S 2M2 (Fairbrother).
- Département de sciences cliniques (Morice, Allano, Sauvé) and Centre de recherche en infectiologie porcine et avicole (Provost, Gagnon), Faculté de médecine vétérinaire, Université de Montréal, 3200 Sicotte, Saint-Hyacinthe, Q J2S 2M2; Bacteriology Diagnostic Laboratory, Complexe de diagnostic et d'épidémiosurveillance vétérinaires du Québec, Ministère de l'Agriculture, des Pêcheries et de l'Alimentation du Québec and Faculté de médecine vétérinaire, Université de Montréal, 3200 Sicotte, Saint-Hyacinthe, Q J2S 2M2 (Fairbrother).
- Département de sciences cliniques (Morice, Allano, Sauvé) and Centre de recherche en infectiologie porcine et avicole (Provost, Gagnon), Faculté de médecine vétérinaire, Université de Montréal, 3200 Sicotte, Saint-Hyacinthe, Q J2S 2M2; Bacteriology Diagnostic Laboratory, Complexe de diagnostic et d'épidémiosurveillance vétérinaires du Québec, Ministère de l'Agriculture, des Pêcheries et de l'Alimentation du Québec and Faculté de médecine vétérinaire, Université de Montréal, 3200 Sicotte, Saint-Hyacinthe, Q J2S 2M2 (Fairbrother).
- Département de sciences cliniques (Morice, Allano, Sauvé) and Centre de recherche en infectiologie porcine et avicole (Provost, Gagnon), Faculté de médecine vétérinaire, Université de Montréal, 3200 Sicotte, Saint-Hyacinthe, Q J2S 2M2; Bacteriology Diagnostic Laboratory, Complexe de diagnostic et d'épidémiosurveillance vétérinaires du Québec, Ministère de l'Agriculture, des Pêcheries et de l'Alimentation du Québec and Faculté de médecine vétérinaire, Université de Montréal, 3200 Sicotte, Saint-Hyacinthe, Q J2S 2M2 (Fairbrother).
MeSH Terms
- Animals
- Anti-Bacterial Agents / pharmacology
- Horse Diseases / microbiology
- Horses
- Hospitals, Animal
- Methicillin / pharmacology
- Methicillin Resistance
- Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus / genetics
- Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus / metabolism
- Phylogeny
- Staphylococcal Infections / microbiology
- Staphylococcal Infections / veterinary
- Staphylococcus aureus / drug effects
- Staphylococcus aureus / genetics
- Staphylococcus aureus / metabolism
- Virulence Factors / genetics
- Virulence Factors / metabolism
- Whole Genome Sequencing
References
This article includes 24 references
- Cuny C, Abdelbary MM, Köck R. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus from infections in horses in Germany are frequent colonizers of veterinarians but rare among MRSA from infections in humans.. One Health 2015;2:11–17.
- Maddox TW, Clegg PD, Diggle PJ. Cross-sectional study of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria in horses. Part 1: Prevalence of antimicrobial-resistant Escherichia coli and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.. Equine Vet J 2012;44:289–296.
- Lakhundi S, Zhang K. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus: Molecular characterization, evolution, and epidemiology.. Clin Microbiol Rev 2018;31:e00020–18.
- Foster TJ, Geoghegan JA. Staphylococcus aureus.. Molecular Medical Microbiology 2015. pp. 655–674.
- Cuny C, Witte W. MRSA in equine hospitals and its significance for infections in humans.. Vet Microbiol 2017;200:59–64.
- Larsen MV, Cosentino S, Rasmussen S. Multilocus sequence typing of total-genome-sequenced bacteria.. J Clin Microbiol 2012;50:1355–1361.
- Bartels MD, Petersen A, Worning P. Comparing whole-genome sequencing with Sanger sequencing for spa typing of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.. J Clin Microbiol 2014;52:4305–4308.
- Kleinheinz KA, Joensen KG, Larsen MV. Applying the ResFinder and VirulenceFinder web-services for easy identification of acquired antibiotic resistance and E. coli virulence genes in bacteriophage and prophage nucleotide sequences.. Bacteriophage 2014;4:e27943.
- International Working Group on the Classification of Staphylococcal Cassette Chromosome Elements (IWG-SCC). Classification of staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec): Guidelines for reporting novel SCCmec elements.. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 2009;53:4961–4967.
- Kondo Y, Ito T, Ma XX. Combination of multiplex PCRs for staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec type assignment: Rapid identification system for mec, ccr, and major differences in junkyard regions.. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 2007;51:264–274.
- Zankari E, Hasman H, Cosentino S. Identification of acquired antimicrobial resistance genes.. J Antimicrob Chemother 2012;67:2640–2644.
- Bosi E, Monk JM, Aziz RK, Fondi M, Nizet V, Palsson BØ. Comparative genome-scale modelling of Staphylococcus aureus strains identifies strain-specific metabolic capabilities linked to pathogenicity.. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2016;113:E3801–E3809.
- Feng Y, Zou S, Chen H, Yu Y, Ruan Z. BacWGSTdb 2.0: A one-stop repository for bacterial whole-genome sequence typing and source tracking.. Nucleic Acids Res 2021;49:D644–D650.
- Ruan Z, Yu Y, Feng Y. The global dissemination of bacterial infections necessitates the study of reverse genomic epidemiology.. Brief Bioinform 2020;21:741–750.
- Weese JS, Rousseau J, Willey BM, Archambault M, McGeer A, Low DE. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in horses at a veterinary teaching hospital: Frequency, characterization, and association with clinical disease.. J Vet Intern Med 2006;20:182–186.
- Weese JS, Archambault M, Willey BM. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in horses and horse personnel, 2000–2002.. Emerg Infect Dis 2005;11:430–435.
- Murphy RJT, Ramsay JP, Lee YT. Multiple introductions of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus ST612 into Western Australia associated both with human and equine reservoirs.. Int J Antimicrob Agents 2019;54:681–685.
- Frisch MB, Castillo-Ramírez S, Petit RA 3rd. Invasive methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus USA500 strains from the U.S. Emerging Infections Program constitute three geographically distinct lineages.. mSphere 2018;3:e00571–17.
- Boyle-Vavra S, Li X, Alam MT. USA300 and USA500 clonal lineages of Staphylococcus aureus do not produce a capsular polysaccharide due to conserved mutations in the cap5 locus.. mBio 2015;6:e02585–14.
- Downer R, Roche F, Park PW, Mecham RP, Foster TJ. The elastin-binding protein of Staphylococcus aureus (EbpS) is expressed at the cell surface as an integral membrane protein and not as a cell wall-associated protein.. J Biol Chem 2002;277:243–250.
- Boerlin P, White DG. Antimicrobial resistance and its epidemiology.. Antimicrobial Therapy in Veterinary Medicine 2013. pp. 21–40.
- Weese JS, Lefebvre SL. Risk factors for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus colonization in horses admitted to a veterinary teaching hospital.. Can Vet J 2007;48:921–926.
- Morris DO, Loeffler A, Davis MF, Guardabassi L, Weese JS. Recommendations for approaches to meticillin-resistant staphylococcal infections of small animals: Diagnosis, therapeutic considerations and preventative measures. Clinical Consensus Guidelines of the World Association for Veterinary Dermatology.. Vet Dermatol 2017;28:304–e69.
- Quainoo S, Coolen JPM, van Hijum SAFT. Whole-genome sequencing of bacterial pathogens: The future of nosocomial outbreak analysis.. Clin Microbiol Rev 2017;30:1015–1063.
Citations
This article has been cited 2 times.- Allano M, Arsenault J, Archambault M, Fairbrother JH, Sauvé F. Prevalence and Risk Factors of Staphylococcus aureus Nasal Colonization in Horses Admitted to a Veterinary Teaching Hospital. J Vet Intern Med 2025 May-Jun;39(3):e70027.
- Sauvé F. Staphylococcal cutaneous infection in horses: From the early 2000s to the present. Can Vet J 2021 Sep;62(9):1001-1006.
Use Nutrition Calculator
Check if your horse's diet meets their nutrition requirements with our easy-to-use tool Check your horse's diet with our easy-to-use tool
Talk to a Nutritionist
Discuss your horse's feeding plan with our experts over a free phone consultation Discuss your horse's diet over a phone consultation
Submit Diet Evaluation
Get a customized feeding plan for your horse formulated by our equine nutritionists Get a custom feeding plan formulated by our nutritionists