International Journal of Public Health and Epidemiology ISSN: 2326-7291 Vol. 3 (8), pp. 054-058, August, 2014. Available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © International Scholars Journals Full Length Research Paper Occurrence of vancomycin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (VRSA) in fresh and fermented milk in Nigeria: A preliminary report Gali Abaka Umaru 1* , Junaidu Kabir 2 , Veronica J. Umoh 3 , Mohammed Bello 2 , and Jacob K. P. Kwaga 2 1* Department of Animal Health, College of Agriculture, P.M.B.1025, Jalingo-660001, Taraba State, Nigeria. 2 Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Veterinary Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria. 3 Faculty of Science, Department of Microbiology, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria. Accepted 7, April 2014 A study was conducted to determine the occurrence of vancomycin resistant S. aureus (VRSA) in milk in Nigeria. Fourty seven S. aureus were isolated from the 372 milk samples examined, out of which 20 (5.4%) were vancomycin-resistant. Fifteen (4%) of the VRSA were isolated from raw milk, 4 (1.1%) from bulk milk and 1 (0.3%) from pasteurized milk. No significant difference (P > 0.05) between the occurrence among the study variables was observed, . No VRSA occurred in the yogurt and ‘kindirmo’ samples examined. The decrease in the occurrence of the pathogen from raw milk to pasteurized milk and its absence in yogurt and ‘kidirmo’ suggest that pasteurization and fermentation may have eliminated most of the organisms. The resistance profiles of the VRSA isolates to other antibiotics showed high resistance to penicillin (100%), tetracycline (85%), amoxicillin (65%), methicillin (40%) and oxacillin (40%), but low to amikacin (5%) and sulphamethoxazole/trimethoprim (10%). None of the isolates were resistant to chloramphenicol and ciprofloxacin. The multiple antibiotic resistance index result revealed that 80% of the VRSA were resistant to 3 or more antibiotics. The presence of VRSA coupled with the multple resistance patterns of these isolates are of great concern and also of public health significance. Therefore more studies on the epidemiology of this pathogen in foods are required. Key words: Vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (VRSA), Fresh Milk, Fermented Milk, Multiple Antibioic Resistance Index (MARI), Preliminary report, Nigeria. INTRODUCTION In an attempt to isolate methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) in fresh and fermented milk in Zaria and Kaduna, Nigeria, significant percentage of the isolated S. aureus were discovered to be vancomycin resistant following antibiotic resistance testing. This is of great concern since vancomycin is the drug of choice after the failure of methicillin, coupled with the fact that vancomycin resistance is rarely reported even in clinical cases. This report, therefore serves as preliminary information on the occurrence of vancomycin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (VRSA) in fresh and fermented milk in Zaria and *Corresponding author.E-mail: drghaliumaru@yahoo.com. Kaduna, Nigeria. Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is one of the bacteria that have developed resistance to most classes of antibiotics including methicillin (Weigel et al., 2007). Vancomycin then became a drug of choice for the treatment of infections with S. aureus and methicillin- resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), until in 1996 when the first Vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (VRSA) was isolated from a Japanese patient (Hiramatsu, 2001). Subsequently, it was isolated in USA, France, Korea, South Africa, and Brazil (Hiramatsu, 2001; Weigel et al., 2007). Vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (VRSA) is therefore, a strain of Staphylococcus aureus that is resistant to the antibiotic glycopeptide, vancomycin (Chang et al., 2001). The resistance is acquired by mutation and thickening of cell