Livestock-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus: establishing links between animals and humans on livestock holdings.

Livestock-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (LA-MRSA) represents a concern in both human and veterinary medicine. The aim of this study was to investigate potential LA-MRSA transmission between animals and humans in rural settings. To this aim, a study was designed to include 14 farms in Slovenia, which were selected on the basis of a farmer (initial patient) with confirmed LA-MRSA infection and regular animal contacts. On all farms, the initial patients, their household members, animals and barn environment were analyzed for the presence of LA-MRSA. In addition, the epidemiologically linked hospital-related LA-MRSA isolates were included to investigate possible nosocomial transmissions. On five farms, LA-MRSA was discovered both in animals and humans. In total, 49 LA-MRSA isolates of different origins underwent whole-genome sequencing, antimicrobial susceptibility testing and spa typing. All 49 isolates belonged to the sequence type 398 (ST398), spa types t011 and t034, and harbored SCCmec Vc. High levels of concordance between resistance phenotypes and genotypes were observed. No transmission pairs between animals and initial patients were discovered. However, several isolates originating from farm animals and other household members formed clusters with pairwise distances of ≤ 14 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), indicating recent transmission events. In addition, three closely related isolates (0 SNP) form hospitalized patients were observed, indicating a possible nosocomial transmission. Two hospital-related isolates harbored the immune evasion cluster (IEC) genes, which are associated with adaptation to the human host; however, these two isolates differed in > 30 SNPs from the remaining isolates. Characteristics of LA-MRSA from Slovenia reflect those observed previously in other European studies. IEC-positive LA-MRSA ST398 suggests its re-adaptation to the human host and calls for a closer monitoring of such emerging LA-MRSA lineages, in addition to monitoring and preventing the introduction of LA-MRSA from farms to hospitals where transmission is highly plausible.