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New phage type among methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus associated with a local outbreak in Belgium during 2002.

Wildemauwe C, Godard C, Joseph R, De Ryck R, Deplano A, Damée S, Van Bossuyt E, Vanhoof R, Struelens M

National Phage Typing Reference Centre, Pasteur Institute, Brussels, Belgium. cwildemauwe@pasteur.be

In total, 150 methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolates collected during 2002 from a general Belgian hospital were phage-typed at routine test dilution x 100. The majority (45%) belonged to phage group (J)*, while 10% were classified as a new phage type 29/(42E)/54/(D11)*. The isolates belonging to this new type carried the aac(6')-aph(2'') and the aph(3') aminoglycoside resistance genes and showed high-level resistance to oxacillin. Molecular typing revealed that they belonged to the multiresistant clonal pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) type D8. PFGE group D, characterised as genotype ST228-MRSA-I, has been present in Belgian hospitals since 1999.

Published 11 September 2006 in Clin Microbiol Infect, 12(10): 1036-8.
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