Evaluating the performance of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy for typing and outbreak investigation of methicillin-resistant and -susceptible <i>Staphylococcus aureus</i>

typing. Our findings suggest the potential use of FTIR in preliminary screening, supporting almost real-time outbreak analysis and hence outbreak management. IMPORTANCE: type, which could be used as screening to detect possible new circulating MRSA and MSSA strains. We were able to infer clinically meaningful information on the relatedness of MRSA isolates for outbreak management with FTIR, which showed good concordance to WGS-based typing. Although 2 out of 13 MRSA isolates were erroneously clustered in a principal component analysis, no false-negative clustering was observed. FTIR spectroscopy continues to show promise as an emerging and cost-effective strain typing tool for both MRSA and MSSA isolates.