Genotyping of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolated from milk and dairy products in South Italy.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a pathogen emerging in hospitals as well as community and livestock. MRSA is a significant and costly public health concern because it may enter the human food chain and contaminate milk and dairy products causing foodborne illness. This study aimed to determine the occurrence and the characteristics of MRSA isolated from 3760 samples of milk and dairy products in a previous survey conducted in southern Italy during 2008-2014. Overall out of 484 S. aureus strains isolated, 40 (8.3%) were MRSA and were characterized by spa-typing, Multi-Locus Sequence Typing, SCCmec typing, Staphylococcal enterotoxins (SEs) genes, Panton-Valentine Leukocidin (PVL) genes and ability to form biofilm. The most frequently recovered STs were ST152 (t355-67.5%), followed by ST398 (t899, t108-25%), ST1 (t127-5%) and ST5 (t688-2.5%). All isolates harboured the SCCmec type V (92.5%) or IVa (25%). In one isolate (2.5%), ST398/t899, the SCCmec resulted not detected. Three isolates (7.5%) carried one or more enterotoxin encoding genes (one strain had seg, sei, sem, sen and seo genes; two strains had seh gene). The 50% of isolated strains harboured PVL-encoding genes. Molecular analysis for icaA and icaD genes showed: 72.5% icaA and icaD positive, 25% only icaD gene and one icaA and icaD negative. The detection of MRSA in food of animal origin is a potential health hazard, thus it is necessary monitoring of food-producing animals and improving hygiene standards in food practices in order to reduce the microbiological risk to minimum.

Short communication: Isolation of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli in raw milk and mozzarella cheese in southern Italy.

Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) are a significant food-borne public health hazard in Europe, where most human infections are associated with 5 serogroups (O157, O26, O103, O145, and O111). In 2015, 95 food and environmental samples were examined for the presence of Shiga toxin genes (stx1 and stx2). The STEC were isolated from 2 raw milk and 1 mozzarella cheese samples that were collected in the period between June and September. To the best of our knowledge, this finding represents the first report of STEC isolation from mozzarella cheese produced in Italy, and it suggests that both the quality of raw milk used to produce mozzarella and the thermal inactivation treatment associated with the curd-stretching step should be carefully monitored.