Distribution of the putative virulence factor encoding gene sheta in Staphylococcus hyicus strains of various origins |
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| Authors: | Talah Kanbar Andrey V Voytenko J?rg Alber Christoph L?mmler Reinhard Weiss Vladimir N Skvortzov |
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| Institution: | 1Institut für Pharmakologie und Toxikologie, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, Frankfurter Str. 107, 35392 Gießen, Germany.;2Kovalenko Research Institute of Experimental Veterinary Medicine, Kurskaya Str. 4, 308002 Belgorod, Russia.;3Institut für Hygiene und Infektionskrankheiten der Tiere, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, Frankfurter Str. 85-91, 35392 Gießen, Germany. |
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| Abstract: | In the present study, Staphylococcus (S.) hyicus strains isolated in Russia (n = 23) and Germany (n = 17) were investigated for the prevalence of the previously described genes sheta and shetb. Sheta was detected in 16 S. hyicus strains. Sheta-positive strains were mainly found among strains isolated from exudative epidermitis, and frequently together with the exfoliative toxin-encoding genes exhD and exhC. Partial sequencing of sheta in a single S. hyicus strain revealed an almost complete match with the sheta sequence obtained from GenBank. None of the S. hyicus strains displayed a positive reaction with the shetb-specific oligonucleotide primer used in the present study. According to the present results, the exotoxin encoding gene sheta seems to be distributed among S. hyicus strains in Russia and Germany. The toxigenic potential of this exotoxin, which does not have the classical structure of a staphylococcal exfoliative toxin, remains to be elucidated. |
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| Keywords: | exfoliative toxins exudative epidermitis sheta shetb Staphylococcus hyicus |
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