Determination of phylogenetic relationships among methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus recovered from infected humans and Companion Animals

Companion animals carry different microorganism of severely public health hazard for human; the kindness relation and contact between humans and companion animals may the route in the transmission of most zoonotic bacteria, including Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Therefore, the current study investigate the companion animals mainly dogs and cat as a reservoir for MRSA and the genetic similarity between the recovered strains of MRSA from such companion animals and their owners. One hundred swabs were collected under aseptic condition from companion animals and seventy swabs were collected from nasal and soft tissue of the infected owners in contact. All samples were examined with standard microbiological techniques, antimicrobial sensitivity, molecular typing and genetic finger printing using RAPD-PCR to determine the genetic finger printing of the recovered strains from humans and companion animals. The prevalence of the MRSA was higher in dog’s swabs than human swabs. Dog swabs showed a rate of (44.4%), cat’s revealed (27.3%), while the owner swabs could detect (42.8%). The antibiotics profiles were 69.2% and all MRSA strains were positive for mecA gene (100%), while only 25 strains (38.5%) were positive for Panton Valentine Leukocidin (PVL gene). Phylogenetic tree revealed 4 clusters with complete genetic relatedness and higher identity between the strains recovered from humans and companion animals. Our results revealed that there is great similarity between the recovered strains, indicating that pets play an important role in colonization and transmitting MRSA to humans, and vice versa.