Distribution of Esp Virulent Gene Among Staphylococcus aureus Isolates in Clinical Samples from Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital, Ado - Ekiti, Nigeria

Infection with Staphylococcus aureus has been considered a major problem in hospitals. The clinical importance of S. aureus is attributed to notable virulence factors and genetic diversity. The study aimed to investigate the distribution of (Enterococal Surface Protein) esp virulent gene and different genotypes in some clinical isolates obtained from Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital, Ado Ekiti. A total of 100 clinical isolates were collected and screened out of which 75 samples with good S. aureus yield were used for this study. 34 (45.3%) were from males and 41 (54.7%) were from females. The isolates were drawn from across several age groups and sample types. Result of antibiotic susceptibility test against 75 S aureus isolate showed 64.0%, 58.7%, 54.7%, and 52.0% of the isolates were sensitive to ciprofloxacin, streptomycin, rocephin, and perfloxacin respectively. Conversely 88.0% of the isolate shows resistance to ampiclox 78.7% to zinnacef, 70.7% to amoxicillin, 64.0% to erythromycin, 64.0% to gentamycin and 56.0% to septrin. Using Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), virulent genes esp formed clusters in S. aureus isolates used in this study. Virulence diversity was observed among isolates. The genetic typing was carried out by Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD-PCR) using OPT06 and OPHO6, primers. In conclusion there exist different genotypes among the S. aureus isolates used in this study revealing high level of genetic diversity occurrence among S. aureus isolates. The DNA fingerprint revealed high genetic diversity among isolates irrespective of their sources.