Nasal Carriage of Methicillin-Resistant Coagulase Negative Staphylococci (MR-CoNS) Among Veterinarians and Veterinary Students

The aim of this work was to determine the nasal carriage of methicillin resistant coagulase negative staphylococci (MR-CoNS) among veterinarians and veterinary students. In addition, species distribution, antimicrobial susceptibility, resistance genes and staphylococcal chromosomal cassette mec (SCCmec) type of the isolates were also investigated. MR-CoNS were isolated from 43.8% (39/89) of veterinarians and 44.6% (37/83) of students. While all MR-CoNS isolates were susceptible to quinopristin-dalfopristine, 64.5% of the isolates showed multiresistance. MR-CoNS strains carried single or various combinations of resistance genes. SCCmec type IV and V were the most common in MR-CoNS strains from both veterinarians and students. This study shows that the rate of nasal carriage of multi-resistant MR-CoNS carriage among veterinarians and veterinary students is high.