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Journal of Bacteriology, June 2008, p. 3962-3968, Vol. 190, No. 11
0021-9193/08/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.01947-07
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

The Carriage Population of Staphylococcus aureus from Mali Is Composed of a Combination of Pandemic Clones and the Divergent Panton-Valentine Leukocidin-Positive Genotype ST152

Hospital Group Bichat-Claude Bernard, AP-HP, and EA 3964, Université Denis Diderot—Paris 7 Medical School, 75870 Paris Cedex 18, France,¹ Laboratoire de Biologie Médicale et d'Hygiène, CHU Point G, Bamako, Mali,² Service de Chirurgie B, CHU Point G, Bamako, Mali,³ Service d'Urologie, CHU Point G, Bamako, Mali,⁴ Service de Chirurgie A, CHU Point G, Bamako, Mali,⁵ Infection Control Unit, Bichat-Claude Bernard Hospital, Assistance Publique Hôpitaux de Paris, Paris 7, 75870 Paris Cedex 18, France,⁶ Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Bath, Claverton Down, Bath BA2 7AY, United Kingdom⁷

Received 14 December 2007/ Accepted 20 March 2008

Staphylococcus aureus is an important human pathogen, but it appears more commonly in asymptomatic colonization of the nasopharynx than in cases of invasive disease. Evidence concerning the global population structure of S. aureus is limited by the overrepresentation in the multilocus sequence testing database of disease isolates recovered from Western Europe, the Americas, Australia, and Japan. We address this by presenting data from the S. aureus carriage population in Mali, the first detailed characterization of asymptomatic carriage from an African population. These data confirm the pandemic spread of many of the common S. aureus clones in the carriage population. We also note the high frequency (24%) of a single divergent genotype, sequence type 152 (ST152), which has not previously been recovered from nasal carriage isolates but corresponds to a sporadic Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL)-positive, community-acquired methicillin-resistant S. aureus clone noted mostly in Central Europe. We show that 100% of the ST152 isolates recovered from nasal carriage samples in Mali are PVL positive and discuss implications relating to the emergence and spread of this virulent genotype.

Published ahead of print on 28 March 2008.