ALBERT

Description:    The emergence of spa types and spa –clonal complexes (CC) among clinical methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus isolates collected from the University Clinical Center in Gdańsk between 2008 and 2009 were investigated. Phage typing was used as the initial screening in the study. The basic set of phages and the additional set of phages were used. Most of the isolates (56 %) belonged to the phage group III. With the additional set of phages, eight types were found, with predominant one MR8 (50 %). Sixteen distinct spa types were observed. The most frequent were t003 (22 %), t151 (16 %), and t008 (12 %). The spa types were clustered into two spa -CC and eight singletons. The predominant CC010 (50 %) consisted of six types, with the most common t003 (36.7 %) and t151(26.7 %), and in 80 % was identified as staphylococcal chromosomal casette mec (SCC mec ) type II. The second cluster has no founder (12 %) with only two spa types: t037 belonging to SCC mec type III and t029. In the most frequent singleton, spa type t008 alone was clustered in 12 % of the isolates. All singletons correspond to SCC mec type IV. The CC010 was distributed in most of the hospital wards, corresponded to Multilocus sequence typing type ST5/ST225 and was constantly present throughout the observed period. The isolates of CC010 generally belonged to the phage group III, and most of them (53.3 %) were resistant to erythromycin, clindamycin, and ciprofloxacin. The concordance between spa -clone and phage type was very high, but the same phage type MR8 was observed within different spa t ypes of the predominant clone. Content Type Journal Article Pages 1-7 DOI 10.1007/s12223-012-0148-z Authors Katarzyna Wiśniewska, Department of Medical Microbiology, Medical University of Gdańsk, Do Studzienki 38, 80-227 Gdańsk, Poland Anna Szewczyk, Department of Clinical Microbiology, University Clinical Center in Gdańsk, Smoluchowskiego 18, 80-214 Gdańsk, Poland Lidia Piechowicz, Department of Medical Microbiology, Medical University of Gdańsk, Do Studzienki 38, 80-227 Gdańsk, Poland Marek Bronk, Department of Clinical Microbiology, University Clinical Center in Gdańsk, Smoluchowskiego 18, 80-214 Gdańsk, Poland Alfred Samet, Department of Clinical Microbiology, University Clinical Center in Gdańsk, Smoluchowskiego 18, 80-214 Gdańsk, Poland Krystyna Świeć, Department of Medical Microbiology, Medical University of Gdańsk, Do Studzienki 38, 80-227 Gdańsk, Poland Journal Folia Microbiologica Online ISSN 1874-9356 Print ISSN 0015-5632