Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci (2020) 9(6): 3471-3482 3471 Original Research Article https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2020.906.409 Virulent Gene Characterization of Methicillin Sensitive Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) and Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) from Bovine Mastitis Hamid Shah 1* , Mohd Altaf Bhat 1 , Burhan Nabi 2 , Anil Taku 1 and Gulzar Ahmed Badroo 1 1 Divison of Veterinary Microbiology and Immunology, F.V.Sc & A.H., SKUAST-J, India 2 Division of Veterinary Medicine, F.V.Sc & A.H, SKUAST-J, India *Corresponding author ABSTRACT Introduction Staphylococcus aureus present worldwide is a gram positive coccus, facultative anaerobe habitually positive for catalase and nitrate reduction and is coagulase variable which can be positive or negative. This organism can get transmitted from animals to humans through contamination of skin lesions while in contact with the affected animals, other possible vehicle including milkers hand and milking equipment is responsible for transmission of organism between animals. Due to its virulence factors like hyluronidase, protease, lipase, nuclease; coagulase; Clumping factors (Clf A); fibrinogen binding proteins (Fnbp A); Protein A; Panton-Valentine leucocidin (PVL); Staphylococcal Enterotoxin (SE) A to International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 9 Number 6 (2020) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com The objective of the study was to characterize the virulence gene profile of MSSA and MRSA isolated from bovine mastitis. A total of 160 mastitic milk samples were collected from different regions of Jammu. Following different molecular techniques, a total of 36(37.5%) isolates were confirmed as S. aureus. These 36 S. aureus isolates were inoculated on ORSA to determine the phenotypic MRSA isolates. Only 20(55.5%) isolates were confirmed to be MRSA phenotypically. All 36 isolates were subjected to mecA gene amplification by PCR. Only 6 isolates were mecA gene positive hence MRSA. Both MRSA and MSSA isolates were screened for virulence genes viz. coagulase (coa), staphylococcal protein A(spa), clumping factor (clfA), haemolysin A(hla) and enterotoxins (eta &etb). The coa gene was present in 35(97.2%), spa in 35(97.2%), clfA in 35(97.2%), hla in 22(61.1%) and eta &etb in none of the isolates. Keywords Amplification, Gene, Isolates, Molecular, PCR, Virulence Accepted: 26 May 2020 Available Online: 10 June 2020 Article Info