Present in pork, Staphylococcus saprophyticus is the cause of more than 20% of urinary tract infections occurring in women, reveals a study.
- The bacteria Staphylococcus saprophyticus, which is present in pork, is the cause of up to 20% of urinary tract infections.
- Transmissible to humans, it has a gene for resistance to antiseptics.
A frequent but particularly painful pathology, urinary tract infection (also called “cystitis”) can affect several organs of the urinary system: the bladder, but also the urethra, kidneys and prostate. It is women who are mainly affected by urinary tract infections, caused by bacteria. These can go up along the urethra towards the bladder and proliferate in the urine. They are the ones that cause burning during urination and give a frequent urge to urinate.
If cystitis is mainly caused by the bacteria Escherichia Coli, others may also be the cause. This is the case of Staphylococcus saprophyticus, the prevalence of which can reach up to 20%. A new study, published in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseasesemphasizes the food origin of cystitis caused by Staphylococcus saprophyticus.
Antibiotic resistant bacteria
S. saprophyticus is one of the most common contaminants in pork. It is also found in the environment, in the intestinal and rectal flora of pigs, as well as in the gastrointestinal tract, vagina and perineum of humans.
To understand whether these bacteria could be the cause of urinary tract infections in humans, researchers analyzed bacteria collected from urinary tract infections around the world for 20 years, as well as from the meat production chain of pork in Portugal. The results revealed that bacteria from the slaughterhouse (equipment, meat, colonization of workers) were similar to bacteria from human urinary tract infections and showed the same antibiotic resistance profile. Although the rate of colonization of pigs by S. saprophyticus is extremely low (1%), 35% of the samples from the slaughterhouse were contaminated.
Additionally, the researchers identified two different lineages (G and S) of S. saprophyticus. The G line, of food origin and transmitted to humans through contact with food products, while the S line is of human origin. However, all the bacteria of the G line presented an antiseptic resistance gene (qacA), which could explain why the bacterium was still detected after cleaning procedures. “The strains of S. saprophyticus of animal origin (G lineage) enter the slaughterhouse through food animals, persist on equipment, spread and contaminate the meat processing chain and humans. Human colonization is a crucial step for the subsequent appearance of a urinary tract infection.explains Opeyemi Lawal, postdoctoral researcher and first author of the study.
Possible transmission between humans
In addition, the genomic data of bacteria collected from patients attending three hospitals in the Lisbon region, showed that there was a transmission of these pathogenic bacteria of the two lineages (G and S) between people of the same community. “This is a clear example of the impact of food handling on human health, and the importance of educating consumers on good personal hygiene practices to prevent the spread of infectious diseases”concludes Maria Miragaia, head of the bacterial evolution and molecular epidemiology laboratory.
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