Clonal structure, resistome and virulence gene profiles of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus from retail chicken meat in the United Arab Emirates
in 12/34 (35.3%) isolates. Overall, these findings indicate that MRSA contaminating retail chicken meat in the UAE is dominated by human-associated, community-type lineages with extensive antimicrobial resistance and virulence gene content, paralleling recent clinical MRSA clonal structures in the country. This study provides the first microarray-based molecular characterization of MRSA from retail chicken meat in the UAE and supports integration of food-chain surveillance into national One Health MRSA monitoring efforts.
Authors
- Syrine Boucherabine
- Fatima A. Al Dhaheri (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5412-6157)
- Abiola Catherine Senok (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6382-198X)
- Stefan Monecke (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4368-8709)
- Richard V. Goering (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7502-7185)
- Ralf Ehricht (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6612-0043)
- Glindya Bhagya Lakshmi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6758-6040)
- Ihab Habib
- Mushtaq Khan
Institutions
- Creighton University (US)
- Khalifa University of Science and Technology (AE)
- Schiller International University (FR)
- United Arab Emirates University (AE)
- Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology (DE)
- Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences (AE)
- InfectoGnostics Research Campus Jena (DE)
- Friedrich Schiller University Jena (DE)
- Cardiff University (GB)
- Zayed University (AE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Frontiers in Microbiology
- Published
- 2026-04-13
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2026.1817264
- Primary Topic
- Antimicrobial Resistance in Staphylococcus
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Al Jalila Foundation
- Khalifa University of Science, Technology and Research
- United Arab Emirates University
- Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences
- National Institutes of Health