Abstract
BACKGROUND: The increasing importance of antibiotic resistance shows the need for determining indices of the epidemiology of infection. AIMS: This study aimed to determine the virulence genes and antibiotic resistance profiles of Staphylococcus aureus isolated from bovine mastitis cases. METHODS: A total of 200 cattle were selected based on California Mastitis Test (CMT) results, and the samples were cultured in the laboratory. Grown colonies were examined by conventional phenotypic methods and confirmed using PCR amplification of 16S rRNA gene. The prevalence of the virulence genes was also defined. The results of phenotypic and molecular tests were compared using SPSS software by McNemar test. Then, the confirmed isolates were tested for antibiotic susceptibility using the disc diffusion method. RESULTS: Of the 200 positive CMT cattle, 24 animals were positive for S. aureus and confirmed using 16S rRNA gene amplification. Statistical analysis showed that the phenotypic and genotypic tests of hemolysin genes were not significantly different (P>0.01). PCR analysis revealed the presence of coa and clfa genes in more than half of the cases. Overall, nine genetic profiles of virulence factors were found among S. aureus isolates. The highest and lowest resistance rates were against penicillin and gentamicin, respectively. CONCLUSION: Our findings showed a high rate of antibiotic resistance. So, accurate and fast diagnosis and antimicrobial susceptibility tests should be considered before prescribing the drugs.