Abstract
The populations of Japanese deer and boar have increased dramatically and have a serious impact on farming and mountain villages. Although the Japanese government promotes the use of captured wild animals, game meat is not subject to sanitary control considering that it is not subject to meat inspection or quality control. Here, we have attempted to isolate Staphylococcus aureus, a typical foodborne pathogen, as a part of an investigation of contamination in the meats of wild animals and their processing stages. We examined 390 samples of deer feces, 117 samples of wild boar feces, and 75 samples of disemboweled deer meat for isolation of S. aureus; ultimately, 30 (positive rate: 7.7%), 2 (1.7%), and 21 (28.0%) strains were isolated, respectively, from the samples. The genome sequences of these isolates were analyzed and were subjected to multilocus sequence ty**. We identified 12 new sequence types (STs) and a dominant population of S. aureus with a characteristic genetic background in wild animals, namely, the ST groups derived from CC121 (number of strains = 39). These strains did not harbor the enterotoxin gene or only harbored egc-related enterotoxin, which is of low involvement in Staphylococcal food poisoning. However, one ST2449 strain, which produces causative enterotoxins, was isolated from a deer’s feces. Since there are several common STs isolated from feces and dismembered meat and because fecal contamination during dismemberment is suspected, continuous monitoring and guidance for improving sanitary management conditions during processing and handling of the meat are highly warranted with immediate effect.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Issei, Inc. for kindly providing the deer meats used in this study.
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This study was supported by the Health and Labour Sciences Research Grants (grant number: 21KA1003) that was organized by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.
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Yasunori Suzuki and Shinji Takai carried out conceptualization, formal analysis, funding acquisition, investigation, methodology, project administration, resources, manuscript drafting, and manuscript revision. Toko Ishitsuka, Miu Takagi, Yukako Sasaki, Tsutomu Kakuda, Kai Kobayashi, Hiroaki Kubota, and Hisaya K. Ono were responsible for formal analysis, investigation, manuscript drafting, and manuscript revision. Hidenori Kabeya, Takao Irie, Masako Andoh, and Hiroshi Asakura were responsible for conceptualization, resources, manuscript drafting, and manuscript revision.
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Suzuki, Y., Ishitsuka, T., Takagi, M. et al. Isolation and genetic characterization of Staphylococcus aureus from wild animal feces and game meats. Folia Microbiol 69, 347–360 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12223-023-01071-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12223-023-01071-x