الفهرس 
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Abstract
Background:Staphylococcus aureus is a renowned human pathogen. It has been embroiled in foodborne intoxication outbreaks worldwide. In the meantime, the emergence of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) which is resistant to beta-lactam antibiotics and has recently been isolated from most food producing animals and their products attracted the public health attention to this microorganism .Aim: Owing to the dearth of information about the existence of MRSA in raw meat products in Port Said city. This study was undertaken to assess the role of raw meat products as well as meat handlers as a source of MRSA contamination . Materials and Methods: A total of 60 raw meat product samples; 20 from each of sausage, burger and minced meat in addition to, 40 meat handlers’ hand swabs were collected randomly from different meat outlets and cultured on Baird Parker agar and chrOMagar MRSA. The suspect strains were further characterized by biochemical typing, antibiotic susceptibility and PCR for detection of nuc and mecA genes specific for Staphylococcus aureus and MRSA, respectively . Results: Screening of isolates on Baird Parker agar and chrOMagar MRSA, revealed that, (60% and 25%) of sausage, (90% and 25%) of burger, (75% and 40%) of minced meat and (100% and 16%) of human hand swab samples were contaminated by coagulase positive Staphylococcus aureus and MRSA, respectively. The mean counts expressed as (log 10 cfu/g-1) of coagulase positive Staphylococcus aureus and MRSA colonies were (3.45 and 2.1), (3.76 and 3.08) and (4.02 and 3.9) in the examined raw meat products (sausage, burger and minced meat), respectively. Regarding meat handlers’ hand swabs, the mean counts of coagulase positive Staphylococcus aureus and MRSA colonies expressed as (log10 cfu/hand) were (1.72 and 0.469) respectively . Another noteworthy point is that 15% (3/20), 25% (5/20), 30% (6/20) of raw sausage, burger and minced meat samples had exceeded the legal permissible limit (<100 cfu.g-1). With respect to human samples 20 %( 8/40) exceeded the legal permissible limit (<100 cfu.g-1). Furthermore, PCR results showed that all the isolates that were classified as MRSA on chrOMagar amplified 310 bp and 395 bp products specific for mecA gene and nuc gene, respectively . Results of the disk diffusion test revealed that all MRSA isolates (N= 52) were resistant to penicillin and oxacillin. On the other hand, a high sensitivity rate was recorded against linezolid (96.2%), vancomycin (92.3%) and ciprofloxacin (86.5%). The least sensitivity rates for MRSA isolates were as follows: Trimethoprim_sulphamethazole (13.5%), erythromycin (13.5%), Clindamycin (19.2%), gentamycin (25%) and amikacin (44.3%). Therecovered MRSA isolates were organized into 9 phenotypic patterns according to their antibiogram susceptibility pattern. The Multiple Antibiotic Resistance (MAR) index of these patterns ranged between (0.2 to 0.9). Conclusion: The examined raw meat products and food handlers’ samples were contaminated with MRSA. For this reason, the corresponding authorities should adopt regular inspection and reassessment of the manufacturing of meat products and training of food handlers to improve their hygiene and decrease levels of contamination.