Abstract
Staphylococcal food poisoning is considered to be one of the most common foodborne illnesses worldwide. Because milk is rich in nutrients and its neutral pH, it leads to the growth of various bacteria. To date, the correlation between enterotoxigenic potential in
species and antimicrobial resistance (AMR), using bioinformatics analysis in buffalo and cow raw milk and the possible health risks from these bacteria, has not been examined in Egypt. A total of 42
isolates representing 12 coagulase-positive staphylococci (
and
) and 30 coagulase-negative staphylococci (
,
,
,
, and
) were isolated. An assay of the antimicrobial resistance phenotypes indicated low resistance against vancomycin (9.5%). The
gene was associated with penicillin G and methicillin resistance and not with sulbactam + ampicillin. The presence of the gene
presented the correlation with erythromycin resistance and
with tetracycline resistance (correlation index: 0.57 and 0.49, respectively), despite the absence of the same behavior for
and
, respectively. Interestingly, the gene
was not correlated with resistance to methicillin or any other β-lactam. Correlation showed that slime-producing isolates had more resistance to antibiotics than those of nonslime producers. The multiple correlations between antibiotic resistance phenotypes and resistance genes indicate a complex nature of resistance in
species. The antimicrobial resistance could potentially spread to the community and thus, the resistance of
species to various antibiotics does not depend only on the use of a single antimicrobial, but also extends to other unrelated classes of antimicrobials.