Molecular characterization of Staphylococcus aureus isolates from southwest of Iran using spa and SCCmec typing methods

• Staphylococcus aureus isolates obtained from different clinical sources in two teaching hospitals.
• SCCmec and spa typing methods were used for typing isolates.
• Out of 44 MRSA strains, 39 (88.5%) were SCCmec III.
• Eighteen different spa types were identified.
• The t037 was the most frequent spa type significantly correlated with SCCmec III and MRSA strains.

Staphylococcus aureus remains a major cause of nosocomial infection worldwide. Characterization of S. aureus isolates circulating in the southwest of Iran will contribute to understand and control the spread of the strains in this area. spa and SCCmec typing methods were used for genotyping of 125 S. aureus isolates obtained from two teaching hospitals in Ahvaz. Drug susceptibility testing was performed by using disk diffusion method.Frequency of the methicillin resistant S. aureus (MRSA) isolates was 39% (n = 34) and 27% (n = 10) in Emam Khomeini and Golestan hospitals, respectively. Except for Erythromycin, MRSA strains showed high rate of resistance to antimicrobial agents including penicillin (100%), norfloxacine (80%), azitromycin (80%), ciprofloxacin (80%), gentamycin (77%), cotrimoxazole (75%), cephotaxime. All isolates were sensitive to vancomycin. Out of 44 MRSA strains, 39 (88.5%) were SCCmec III, three (7%) were IVc and two (4.5%) of them were nontypeable. spa types t037 (26 isolates; 59%), and t1149 (25 isolates; 31%) were the most dominant types found in MRSA and methicillin sensitive S. aureus (MSSA) strains, respectively.We found SCCmec type III as the most prominent type indicating that most of the studied bacterial population had hospital origin. spa type t037, the most frequent genotype in this study were significantly (100%) associated with MRSA. For the first time we are reporting spa types t692, t706 and t018 from Iran and t342, t704, t2622, t5598, t11270 and t2864 from Asia. Moreover we are reporting types t6871 and t2684 for the second time in the world.