A review and meta-analysis of Staphylococcus aureus prevalence in foods

We present the review and meta-analysis of the prevalence of Staphylococcus aureus isolates from various food sources. PubMed, Google Scholar, Scopus, and Science Direct were searched for articles from 2012 to 2022. S. aureus is a pathogenic bacterium present in natural skin flora, that can cause a variety of diseases with different degrees of severity. Although its natural habitat are humans and animals, S. aureus can be found in water, soil and contaminated surfaces. Consequently, multiple routes can be involved in food contamination by S. aureus. The bacterium was most prevalent in ready-to-eat food (35.1 %), meat (21.7 %) and dairy products (18.5 %). Among contaminated products, meat products represented 59.51 % and were distributed as such: 44 % for beef meat, 28 % for pork meat, 22 % for chicken meat, 6 % for turkey meat. Antibiotic resistance studies showed resistance to penicillins is the most common (61 %) while resistant to quinolones, amphenicols and rifamycins were found to be low (<10 %). Pooled prevalence of antimicrobial resistance in isolated strains revealed that 68 % of all isolates carried resistance to at least one antibiotic in clinical use. Future studies are needed to assess antimicrobial resistance, food-associated stress and biofilm formation of the foodborne pathogen S. aureus. Furthermore, improved diagnostic tools and implementation of surveillance programs could lead to reduction of the burden caused by S. aureus.