Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus isolates derived from humans and animals in Yogyakarta, Indonesia

BACKGROUND AND AIM: The emergence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) as a highly pathogenic strain in veterinary and human medicine is a growing global problem. This study aimed to evaluate MRSA isolates of human and animal origin against various antibiotics in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The susceptibility test was carried out by the disk diffusion method using Mueller-Hinton agar against nine antibiotic disks. Methicillin-resistant S. aureus strains were genetically confirmed through mecA gene detection encoding for methicillin resistance by polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS: All 240 S. aureus strains isolated from animals and humans were resistant to penicillin G (P) (100% and 99%, respectively), followed by ampicillin (AMP), amoxicillin (AML), oxacillin (OX), erythromycin (E), clindamycin (DA), tetracycline (TE), gentamicin (GEN), and ciprofloxacin (CIP). Eighty-three MRSA strains were resistant to OX (100%), P (100%), AMP (99.27%), AML (95.52%), E (87.77%), TE (71.33%), DA (63.24%), GEN (38.81%), and CIP (26.87%). CONCLUSION: The antimicrobial resistance pattern of S. aureus human isolates was similar to their animal counterpart, with 77.20% of MRSA strains classified as multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria. These findings indicate an increase in MDR S. aureus strains of animal origin in Yogyakarta, thus raising public health concerns about MRSA zoonotic spread.