Evidence of cat-to-human transmission of Staphylococcus felis. Staphylococcus felis

Staphylococcus felis is a frequently isolated coagulase negative Staphylococcal species on the skin and oral mucosa of healthy cats. S. felis is often susceptible to most antimicrobials and S. felis has not been associated with human infections. In this study we describe a wound infection caused by S. felis in a 58-year-old woman. We sampled the three cats of the owner to further investigate the potential source. The only detected resistance gene was a Streptogramine A/lincosamide encoding gene in isolates of one cat. Comparison of the S. felis core genomes showed that the isolates from each individual cat clustered separately, but the genome of the human isolate was identical to genomes of isolates from cat C, demonstrating evidence for cat-to-human transmission and a zoonotic potential for S. felis.