Comparison of genomic and antimicrobial resistance features of latex agglutination test-positive and latex agglutination test-negative Staphylococcus aureus isolates causing bovine mastitis

The dairy industry suffers massive economic losses due to staphylococcal mastitis in cattle. The Staphaureux latex agglutination test (Oxoid, Basel, Switzerland) was reported to lead to negative results in 54% of bovine Staphylococcus aureus strains, and latex-negative strains are thought to be less virulent than Staphaurex latex-positive strains. However, comparative information on virulence and resistance profiles of these 2 groups of Staph. aureus is scarce. Our objective was to associate the latex agglutination phenotype of Staph. aureus strains isolated from bovine mastitis milk with data on clonal complexes, virulence genes, and antibiotic resistance to (1) determine the virulence profiles of the Staphaureux test positive and Staphaurex test negative groups, and (2) provide data needed to improve treatment of bovine mastitis and to identify potential vaccine targets. Seventy-eight Staph. aureus strains isolated from 78 cows on 57 Swiss farms were characterized. Latex agglutination was tested by Staphaureux kit, and resistance profiles were generated by disk diffusion. A DNA microarray was used to assign clonal complexes (CC) and to determine virulence and resistance gene profiles. By the Staphaureux test, 49% of the isolates were latex-positive and 51% were latex-negative. All latex-negative strains were assigned to CC151, whereas latex-positive strains were assigned to various clonal complexes, including CC97 (n = 16), CC8 (n = 10), CC479 (n = 5), CC20 (n = 4), CC7 (n = 1), CC9 (n = 1), and CC45 (n = 1). Although the latex-negative isolates were susceptible to all antimicrobial agents tested, 24% of latex-positive isolates were classified as intermediate with regard to cefalexin-kanamycin and 13% were resistant to both ampicillin and penicillin. Microarray profiles of latex-negative isolates were highly similar, but differed largely from those of latex-positive isolates. Although the latex-negative group lacked several enterotoxin genes and sak, it exhibited significantly higher prevalence rates of genes encoding enterotoxin C, toxic shock syndrome toxin, and leukocidins (lukM/lukF-P83, lukD). Our findings suggest that latex-negative isolates represent a group of closely related strains with specific resistance and virulence gene patterns.