Abstract This study aimed at monitoring and characterize the Staphylococcus aureus carriage status of employees in a pasta company in order to evaluate the associated risk factors. Food handlers (n = 21) were sampled between 2013 and 2015 through nasal and hand swabs to determine the colonization status. Seven out of 21 employees (33%) were contaminated with S. aureus and the prevalence decreased to 9.5% over the last year. Only two persistent carriers were identified. Twenty-eight strains were isolated from both hand and nasal samples. Each of them was resistant to at least one class of antibiotics and the multidrug resistance strains were isolated from the nose. The highest resistance rate was observed towards penicillin G (79%) and to linezolid (64%) confirming the rapid spread of linezolid resistant strains recently described in Italy. The dominant toxin gene was sem (93%), which is usually not among the most prevalent, whereas the primary agr group was the agrIII (43%) and the most frequent spa type was t030 (39%). These results combined with the genomic macrorestriction analysis revealed high genetic diversity. The increased virulence, antibiotic resistance and molecular variability of isolates highlighted the importance of monitoring activity in food company to assess the potential associated risk of foodborne diseases.

中文翻译：

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一家面食公司食品加工人员中金黄色葡萄球菌的携带：利奈唑胺的毒力和耐药性模式

摘要 本研究旨在监测和表征一家面食公司员工的金黄色葡萄球菌携带状况，以评估相关的风险因素。2013 年至 2015 年期间，通过鼻拭子和手拭子对食品处理人员（n = 21）进行采样，以确定定植状态。21 名员工中有 7 名 (33%) 被金黄色葡萄球菌污染，去年的流行率下降至 9.5%。仅确定了两个持续携带者。从手和鼻样本中分离出 28 个菌株。它们中的每一个都对至少一类抗生素具有抗药性，并且从鼻子中分离出多药耐药菌株。观察到对青霉素 G (79%) 和利奈唑胺 (64%) 的耐药率最高，证实了最近在意大利描述的利奈唑胺耐药菌株的快速传播。显性毒素基因是 sem (93%)，通常不是最普遍的，而主要的 agr 组是 agrIII (43%)，最常见的 spa 类型是 t030 (39%)。这些结果与基因组宏观限制分析相结合，揭示了高遗传多样性。分离株毒力、抗生素耐药性和分子变异性的增加凸显了食品公司监测活动以评估食源性疾病潜在相关风险的重要性。