Prevalence of enterotoxin genes and antimicrobial resistance of coagulase-positive staphylococci recovered from raw cow milk

Raw milk may be contaminated by enterotoxigenic coagulase-positive staphylococci (CPS). Several of these microorganisms show antimicrobial resistance, which poses a potential risk for consumers. The aim of this study was to determine the occurrence of enterotoxin genes and antimicrobial resistance of CPS isolated from cow milk. A total of 115 samples were analyzed for the presence of CPS according to the International Organization for Standardization standard (ISO 6888-2). The genes were identified using 2 multiplex PCR assays. Resistance of the isolates to 10 antimicrobials was determined using the minimum inhibitory concentration method. Overall, 71 samples (62%) were contaminated with CPS and 69 isolates were further analyzed. Among them, 20 (29%) strains harbored the enterotoxin genes. The most commonly detected staphylococcal enterotoxin markers were sed, sej, and ser, whereas none of the analyzed isolates possessed the seb and see genes. Almost one-half of the tested strains (43%) were resistant to one or more antimicrobial agents. Resistance to penicillin was the most common, followed by sulfamethoxazole and chloramphenicol. On the other hand, all strains were susceptible to ciprofloxacin, erythromycin, gentamicin, cefoxitin, and streptomycin. None of the strains was positive for the mecA and mecC (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) genes. These results indicate that enterotoxigenic and antimicrobial-resistant CPS strains are present in raw milk, which may be a potential risk for public health.