Occurrence and Characterization of Methicillin Resistant in Processed Raw Foods and Ready-to-Eat Foods in an Urban Setting of a Developing Country.

Infections by methicillin-resistant (MRSA) are gradually increasing in the community. In this study, we investigated a total of 162 food samples including 112 ready-to-eat (RTE) foods and 40 processed raw meat and fish samples collected from retail vendors in Dhaka, Bangladesh and determined the occurrence of toxigenic and MRSA. Around 22% of samples were positive for , RTE foods being more positive (23%) than the processed raw meat/fish samples (18%). Among 35 isolates, 74% were resistant to erythromycin, 49% to ciprofloxacin and around 30% to oxacillin and cefoxitin. Around 37% of isolates were resistant to ≥3 classes of antibiotics and 26% of isolates ( = 9) were identified as MRSA. Majority of the isolates were positive for enterotoxin genes (74%), followed by gene (71%), toxic shock syndrome toxin () gene (17%) and exfoliative toxin genes (11%). Multi locus sequence typing (MLST) of 9 MRSA isolates identified four different types such as ST80 ( = 3), ST6 ( = 2), ST239 ( = 2) and ST361 ( = 2). typing of MRSA isolates revealed seven different types including t1198 ( = 2), t315 ( = 2), t037 ( = 1), t275 ( = 1), t304 ( = 1), t8731 ( = 1) and t10546 ( = 1). To our knowledge, this is the first report entailing baseline data on the occurrence of MRSA in RTE foods in Dhaka highlighting a potential public health risk to street food consumers.