Bacteriological and molecular study of gram positive bacteria isolated from thalassemic patients in Erbil city

الملخص EN

Out of 225 specimens; 57 of Gram positive bacteria were isolated and identified from thalassemic patients depending on VITEK 2 compact system.

The results showed that 10 genera and 25 species were isolated and the predominant obtained bacteria were staphylococci species which 21 (36.84%) isolates belong to 8 species.

All isolated bacteria were tested for their ability for biofilm formation using microtiter plate assay, tube method and congo red agar method and the results revealed that the percentage of biofilm production were 100%, 75.44% and 29.82% for each method respectively.

Also their susceptibility to 13 antibiotics was tested and it was found that most of the isolates were highly resistant to amoxicillin/clavulanic acid with percentage 81.53%, while the most effective antibiotics were imipenem and vancomycin with percentage 96% for both antibiotics and also it was showed variable sensitivity to other antibiotics.

Another part of the study concerned with using polymerase chain reaction technique for detection of mecA and femA genes in all isolates and the results revealed that out of 21 staphylococci isolates, 12 (57.14%) were harboring mecA gene with amplification product size 533 bp, while 7(33.33%) of 21 staphylococci isolates were harboring femA gene with amplification product size 318 bp, also the gene mecA was found in one isolate of K.rosea with same product size of above mentioned mecA, whereas no genes were obtained from other isolated Gram positive bacteria and the detected gene of mecA in S.aureus and K.rosea was sequenced to confirm the results of mecA gene.