Passenger air transport is one of the main routes for the global spread of multidrug-resistant bacteria. This may be due to airborne pathogen transmission, which may occur within the commercial aircraft cabin. Because of this, we performed an investigation of aerial contamination by Staphylococcus species in 166 commercial aircraft and analyzed the presence of antibiotic resistance and biofilm synthesis genes in the collected isolates. Bacterial identification was performed by using species-specific primers and partial sequencing of 16S rRNA and tuf genes. The antibiotic resistance genes screened were: mecA, mecC, blaZ, ermA, ermB, ermC, and vanA. For biofilm synthesis, ica locus genes were screened. Fourteen species and four subspecies of Staphylococcus were detected in the analyzed samples. Except for mecC and vanA, all other genes were detected, including the mecA gene in Staphylococcus aureus and Coagulase-negative Staphylococcus isolates. Only S. epidermidis isolates were positive for biofilm formation. To date, this is the first study to report a significant diversity of airborne Staphylococcus and the presence of airborne methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in the cabin environment in commercial aircraft. Our results point to the importance of indoor air quality monitoring in the cabin environment as a preventive measure for the airborne spread of clinically significant pathogens.

航空客运是多重耐药菌全球传播的主要途径之一。这可能是由于空中病原体传播，这可能发生在商用飞机机舱内。因此，我们对 166 架商用飞机中葡萄球菌属的空中污染进行了调查，并分析了收集的分离株中抗生素抗性和生物膜合成基因的存在。通过使用物种特异性引物和 16S rRNA 和tuf基因的部分测序进行细菌鉴定。筛选出的抗生素抗性基因为：mecA、mecC、blaZ、ermA、ermB、ermC、和vanA。对于生物膜合成，筛选ica基因座基因。在分析的样品中检测到14 种葡萄球菌和 4 种亚种。除mecC和vanA 外，所有其他基因均被检测到，包括金黄色葡萄球菌和凝固酶阴性葡萄球菌分离物中的mecA基因。只有表皮葡萄球菌分离株对生物膜形成呈阳性。迄今为止，这是第一项报告空气传播的葡萄球菌的显着多样性和空气传播的耐甲氧西林金黄色葡萄球菌的研究(MRSA) 在商用飞机的客舱环境中。我们的研究结果表明，机舱环境中的室内空气质量监测作为临床重要病原体空气传播的预防措施的重要性。