Contamination of post-harvest poultry products with multidrug resistant Staphylococcus aureus in Maryland-Washington DC metro area

• Staphylococcus aureus isolates were recovered from all three sources of poultry meats.
• Single and multi-drug resistance S. aureus were detected in 58.3% isolates.
• One MRSA isolate was found which harbored mecA gene.

We investigated the prevalence of Staphylococcus aureus and multidrug including methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) in poultry retail meat samples from the Maryland-Washington DC metro area. A total of 24 S. aureus isolates were recovered from 96 whole poultry carcass samples and the prevalence of S. aureus were 25.0%, 14.29%, and 33.3% in retail poultry meats collected from farmers markets, organic and conventional retail supermarkets, respectively. Both single and multi-drug resistance isolates were detected in 58.3% (7/12) isolates from conventional retail meat products but none from farmers markets or organic retail meat isolates. Conventional retail meat isolates were found to be resistant to both erythromycin (50.0%) and tetracycline (58.3%). We also detected an MRSA isolate harboring mecA gene in conventional retail meat which showed co-resistance towards erythromycin, tetracycline, and vancomycin.