Study the prevalence rate and antibiotic resistance pattern of the Staphylococcus aureus strains isolated from different types of vegetables and salads in Chaharmahal VA Bakhtiari province in Spring, 2017

Staphylococcus aureus is one of the main causative agents of food poisoning in human. Occurrence of severe antibiotic resistances has increased the importance of this bacterium. The present study was carried out to assess the prevalence rate and antibiotic resistance pattern of S. aureus strains isolated from vegetable and salad samples in Chaharmahal Va Bakhtiari Province. In this study, 485 samples of vegetable and salad were collected and immediately transferred to the laboratory. Samples were evaluated by microbial culture and the isolated S. aureus strains were analyzed for the antibiotic resistance pattern using the disk diffusion method. The prevalence rate of S. aureus in vegetable and salad samples were 16% and 11.91%, respectively. The highest (26.50%) and the lowest (6.72%) contamination rates were observed in Lordegan and Shahrekord cities. A Significant statistical difference was observed for the prevalence of S. aureus between vegetable and salad samples (P<0.05). S. aureus strains isolated from vegetable and salad samples had the highest prevalence of resistance against penicillin (95.58%), tetracycline (88.23%), ampicillin (79.41%), erythromycin (72.05%) and methicillin (70.58%) antibiotics. The lowest prevalence of antibiotic resistance was reported against imipenem (7.35%), chloramphenicol (22.05%), cotrimoxazol (26.47%) and co-amxiclave (29.41%). Judicious prescription of antibiotics according to the results of the disk diffusion method can reduce the risk of resistant S. aureus in vegetable and salad.