SRA

Staphylococcus aureus is a common inhabitant of human skin and noses of 25% of healthy people and animals and does not causes illness to healthy individual. But its well-known opportunistic pathogen that can cause a broad range of infections including mild skin infections, invasive diseases and toxin mediated diseases. Pathogenicity of S. aureus is attributed to its ability to produce staphylococcal enterotoxins (SEs), to survive in different environmental conditions and also its profound ability to acquire resistance to antimicrobials. Staphylococci species are not members of normal microflora of fish and hence presence of staphylococci in fish indicates a post-harvest contamination which may be due to poor hygiene of personnel involved in processing/selling or some disease in fish. Some staphylococci species have developed resistance to many ß-lactam producing antibiotics though acquiring a mobile staphylococcal chromosomal cassette (SSC) which carries Methicillin resistant gene mecA. Coagulase positive Methicillin resistant S. aureus (CP-MRSA) are internationally acknowledged as zoonotic multi-drug resistant pathogenic bacteria responsible for nosocomial as well as community acquired infections in humans and many animal species. In recent years there are many studies focusing on finding MRSA in farms and food producing animals such as pork, beef, chicken meats and also in milk in Europe, United States and Asia. The incidence of MRSA in fish and other seafood has recently been noted. The role of fish handlers and fish processing workers play a crucial in determining the quality of fish. MRSA may be introduced in fish by worker or handlers who are carrier of these bacteria and also be secondary contamination during transport and storage. The incidence rate of MRSA has been increased in the past 20 years, accompanied by a rise in antibiotic-resistant strains and more recently, vancomycin-resistant strains.