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J Med Microbiol 57 (2008), 612-616; DOI: 10.1099/jmm.0.47757-0
© 2008 Society for General Microbiology
ISSN 1473-5644

Distribution of spa types among meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus isolates during a 6 year period at a low-prevalence university hospital

Lukas Fenner1, Andreas F. Widmer2, Marc Dangel2 and Reno Frei1

1 Microbiology Laboratory, University Hospital Basel, Petersgraben 4, CH-4031 Basel, Switzerland

2 Division of Infectious Diseases and Hospital Epidemiology, University Hospital Basel, Petersgraben 4, CH-4031 Basel, Switzerland

Correspondence
Reno Frei
rfrei{at}uhbs.ch

Received 8 November 2007
Accepted 8 February 2008

This study describes the distribution and frequencies of strain types by protein A-encoding gene (spa) typing among a total of 200 meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) single-patient isolates collected between 2000 and 2005 at the University Hospital Basel, Switzerland. Nine frequent spa types accounted for 49.5 % of MRSA isolates, whereas spa type t041 (15 % of all isolates) belonged to a local epidemic strain that is also a common strain type in southern Germany. Successful control of the outbreak strain was documented by epidemiological data and confirmed by spa typing results. The spa type t044 (3.5 %), corresponding to a widely disseminated European community-acquired MRSA (CA-MRSA), was first observed in 2002. The well-known CA-MRSA USA300 clone was detected in four patients (2 %). Sporadic strains occurring less than four times (32 different spa types) accounted for 23 % of isolates. No predominant spa type was seen, indicating a great genetic diversity. Only 34.5 % of patient isolates were acquired nosocomially. The presence of one or more of ten common virulence genes was shown in 79 % of strains. It was demonstrated that the sequence-based spa typing method allows analysis of local MRSA epidemiology in relation to other regions and countries over time.

Abbreviations: CA-MRSA, community-acquired MRSA; MLST, multilocus sequence typing; MRSA, meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus; spa-CC, spa clonal complex; UHBS, University Hospital Basel.






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