Coagulase-Negative Staphylococci in Human Milk From Mothers of Preterm Compared With Term Neonates

Background:Human milk is the preferred nutrition for neonates and a source of bacteria.Research aim:The authors aimed to characterize the molecular epidemiology and genetic content of staphylococci in the human milk of mothers of preterm and term neonates.Methods:Staphylococci were isolated once per week in the 1st month postpartum from the human milk of mothers of 20 healthy term and 49 preterm neonates hospitalized in the neonatal intensive care unit. Multilocus variable-number tandem-repeats analysis and multilocus sequence typing were used. The presence of the mecA gene, icaA gene of the ica-operon, IS256, and ACME genetic elements was determined by PCR.Results:The human milk of mothers of preterm compared with term neonates had higher counts of staphylococci but lower species diversity. The human milk of mothers of preterm compared with term neonates more often contained Staphylococcus epidermidis mecA (32.7% vs. 2.6%), icaA (18.8% vs. 6%), IS256 (7.9% vs. 0.9%), and ACME (15.4% vs. 5.1%), as well as...