Genomic characterization of a 9 year collection of Staphylococcus aureus from an Italian Hospital. Staphylococcus aureus

Here we present a metadata driven genomic screening of 226 Staphylococcus aureus blood isolates, sampled between 2011 and 2019, at the San Matteo Hospital in Pavia (Italy). The analyses revealed an hospital population with a varied background, composed of community and hospital-acquired strains, belonging to 8 different clonal complexes, for a total number of 49 different sequence types. We characterized these genomes for the presence of a number of virulence and antibiotic resistance genes and lastly, we performed clonal complex specific phylogenetic reconstructions in order to identify the presence of persistent monophyletic clones populating the hospital for the entire period of study.