WGS project of 54 Staphylococcus strains isolated from industrial meat rabbits

Staphylococcosis is one of the most important infectious diseases in modern rabbit farming. Previous studies revealed the existence of virulent variants adapted to the domesticated rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus). Typical and atypical high virulent, and low virulent variants had been isolated and reported from Hungarian large-scale industrial rabbit farms. Preceding research focused on detecting predefined nucleotide sequences, the genome of these organisms as a whole was rarely subjected to scientific investigations. The aim of this study was to reveal further details about genetical differences between typical and atypical virulent strains.Here we present the result of whole-genome sequencing of 55 draft genome sequences, derived from Staphylococcus aureus strains originating from industrial rabbits. The whole-genome MLST revealed the clonal origin of both typical and atypical virulent variants. More interestingly the low virulent strains are also very similar, indicating that this genotype might be another rabbit-specific clone, rather than human or poultry originated, suggested by previous studies. Other “non-aureus” Staphylococcus species were also identified.