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MRSA SCCmec epidemiology in Israel: development and implementation of an MRSA SCCmec typing strategy

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Abstract

Staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec) typing is essential for investigating the molecular epidemiology of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Published assays were often found to be limited in their ability to characterize isolates that were not collected locally. We aimed to develop, test, and implement a molecular method which would enable the SCCmec classification of a large collection of MRSA isolates in a routine clinical laboratory. A multistep working algorithm consisting of two main steps and four additional supplementary steps was developed, using previously reported primers. A total of 1,008 isolates obtained locally, by both clinical and screening cultures, were tested. The majority of isolates (82.54%) could be classified using two main reactions. Overall, our MRSA SCCmec typing strategy was able to classify 917/1,008 (90.97%) of the MRSA isolates. The most predominant was type II SCCmec (41%); a high prevalence of type V SCCmec (16.37%) was also found. PVL gene carriage was found among two type IV SCCmec isolates only. We present a logistically feasible, multistep, MRSA SCCmec typing algorithm which can be used to type a large collection of MRSA isolates. The distinctly higher prevalence of SCCmec type V might reflect a unique MRSA distribution pattern in Israel.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Dr. S. Navon-Venezia from the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Israel, and Dr. Michele Bes from the National Reference Laboratory for Staphylococci, INSERM E0230, IFR62, Faculté de Médecine Laennec, Lyon, France, for kindly providing the control strains.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Infectious Diseases Unit, Meir Medical Center, Kfar Saba, Israel

    D. Alon & M. Chowers

  2. Clinical Microbiology Laboratory, Meir Medical Center, Kfar Saba, Israel

    F. Abd-Elkadir & Y. Paitan

  3. P.O. Box 5175, 40500, Even Yehuda, Israel

    D. Alon

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  1. D. Alon
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  2. F. Abd-Elkadir
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  3. M. Chowers
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  4. Y. Paitan
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Correspondence to D. Alon.

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Alon, D., Abd-Elkadir, F., Chowers, M. et al. MRSA SCCmec epidemiology in Israel: development and implementation of an MRSA SCCmec typing strategy. Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis 30, 1443–1452 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10096-011-1243-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10096-011-1243-9

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