Bacteriophage Typing and Plasmid Profiling of Methicillin Resistant of Staphylococcus aureus Strains Isolated from Human Clinical Cases in Himachal Pradesh

The present study aims at bacteriophage typing and plasmid profiling of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus strains recovered from patients with different clinical conditions at Indira Gandhi Medical College, Shimla Himachal Pradesh. We have previously reported the emergence of such resistance among S.aurues strains of Himachal Pradesh. Out of 38 isolates of methicillin resistant S. aureus, 32 (84.21%) strains were typable and remaining 5 (13.15%) were non-typable and one was contaminated. The most common group was mixed phage group and phage group III, 37.50% each followed by phage group I and II, 12.5% each. Phage groups NA and V however, did not lysed any strain. Phage type 77 was most predominant which lysed 27 MRSA strains followed by type 84 (19 strains), type 47 (16 strains), 52A (12 strains) and 42 E (5 strains) in the present study. Out of 40 MRSA isolates examined, 36 (82%) harboured a single type of plasmid of Mr less than 2 kDa.