Nasal carriage of methicillin-resistant coagulase negative staphylococci (MR-CoNS) among veterinarians and veterinary students

The aim of this work was to determine the nasal carriage of methicillin resistant coagulase negative staphylococci (mr-cons) among veterinarians and veterinary students. in addition,species distribution,antimicrobial susceptibility,resistance genes and staphylococcal chromosomal cassette mec (sccmec) type of the isolates were also investigated. mr-cons were isolated from 43.8% (39/89) of veterinarians and 44.6% (37/83) of students. while all mr-cons isolates were susceptible to quinopristin-dalfopristine,64.5% of the isolates showed multi-resistance. mr-cons strains carried single or various combinations of resistance genes. sccmec type iv and v were the most common in mr-cons strains from both veterinarians and students. this study shows that the rate of nasal carriage of multi-resistant mr-cons carriage among veterinarians and veterinary students is high.