SPECIES DISTRIBUTION AND VIRULENCE PROPERTIES OF COAGULASE-NEGATIVE STAPHYLOCOCCI ISOLATED FROM HUMAN AND DOMESTIC ANIMAL SOURCESSUJA PHILIP, MINU THOMAS, E.K. RADHAKRISHNAN AND JYOTHIS MATHEWAbstract Coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS) from different sources i.e. human healthy skin, clinical samples and domestic animals were identified and incidences of virulence properties were studied. The predominant CNS species isolated was S. epidermidis in both healthy skin and clinical samples. It comprised 30.6% and 35.75% of the CNS isolates in human healthy skin samples and clinical samples respectively. In domestic animals the predominant species was S. hyicus, which comprised about 36.32% of the CNS isolates. The species distribution of CNS isolated from clinical samples, the healthy skin and domestic animal samples had significant differences. The analysis of virulence properties revealed the production of capsule in 33.85%, slime in 41.62%, biofilm in 36.61%, siderophore in 27.46% and synthesis of enzymes including esterase in 20.38%, DNase in 13.3% and TNase in 8.98% of the CNS isolates. TNase production was completely absent in isolates from human healthy skin samples tested. The rate of positiveness of all these virulence factors was higher for clinical samples (52.23%) and domestic animal samples (32.04%) compared to the human healthy skin (15.73%). We conclude that these virulence factors are significant and may have an important role in the pathogenesis of infections.
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