Abstract

Background:
The World Health Organization has identified methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) as a "priority bacterium" because of its significant worldwide incidence, resistance to several drugs, and difficult-to-treat infections in both community and clinical settings.

Aim:
The objectives of this study are to collect and discuss MRSA isolates from restaurants, investigate and contrast the genetic profiles of the MRSA strains found in this study with those found in other regions of the world, and use polymerase chain reaction (PCR) techniques to examine the isolates for the existence of the sea, seb, and sec enterotoxin genes.

Methods:
Three hundred fifty samples (knives, meat, tables, hands, and machinery) were gathered from 20 restaurants in Erbil city. The period of study was from August to November 2024. All samples were transferred to the Laboratory for examination.

Results:
The results of the research showed that 44.1% of the S. aureus isolates from restaurants were triggered by MRSA. Meat samples had the highest rate of MRSA (64.5%), subsequent by knife samples (62.1%), machine surfaces (50.0%), and table and hand swab samples (38.7%). Moreover, the results demonstrated that all MRSA isolates (100%) carried the nuc, coa, and mecA genes, as confirmed by PCR analysis. In terms of enterotoxin gene distribution, the sea gene was the most prevalent, detected in 95.5% (64/67) of the MRSA isolates, followed by the sec gene in 65.7%, and the seb gene in 25.4% of the isolates. Profile III—characterized by the presence of nuc, coa, mecA, sea, and sec—was the most predominant, accounting for 55.3%. The phylogenetic analysis revealed that the sequence similarity among the isolates obtained in this study ranged from 98.8% to 99.8%, indicating a high degree of genetic relatedness. The sequences obtained in this study exhibited a close genetic relationship with isolates from Norway and Poland, showing sequence similarities ranging from 98.6% to 99.8%.

Conclusion:
The prepared meat for eating in restaurants was contaminated with S. aureus. All equipment used in restaurants was contaminated with S. aureus, which contributes to spread it which leading to food poisoning. There is a closed relationship between S. aureus isolated with S. aureus isolated from various regions in worldwide.

Key words: MRSA; Enterotoxins genes; Phylogenetic analysis tree; Restaurants; Food contamination.