en تخصصي Special Original article Original article <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="line-height:115%"><b><span lang="SK"><span style="line-height:115%">Background:</span></span></b> <span lang="SK"><span style="line-height:115%">With regard to health-threatening infections, <i>Staphylococcus aureus</i> is the leading cause of polymorphic infections varying from a banal tegumentary infection to numerous lethal illnesses.</span></span> <span lang="SK"><span style="line-height:115%">Furthermore, it is the third commonest bacterial cause of food-borne infections worldwide.This study aimed to investigate contamination, prevalence, and antibiotic resistance of <i>S. aureus </i>isolated from several widely marketed food products (raw and processed) in the region of Oran, Algeria.</span></span></span><br> <span style="line-height:115%"><b><span lang="SK"><span style="line-height:115%">Methods:</span></span></b> <span lang="SK"><span style="line-height:115%">A total of 350 food samples including prepared meals (n=110), dairy products (n=42), pastry (n=78), meat and its derivatives (n=97), and other commercially available foods (egg products, sweets, and sauces) (n=23) have been randomly purchased from diverse sale outlets and screened for <i>S. aureus </i>strains during the period from July 2021 to September 2022. The isolation and identication of <i>S. aureus </i>bacteria were preformed using conventional culture and biochemical tests such as catalase, coagulase, and DNase tests. Furthermore, the strains were screened for their resistance to five different antimicrobial drugs using the agar diffusion method.</span></span></span><br> <span style="line-height:115%"><b><span lang="SK"><span style="line-height:115%">Results:</span></span></b><span lang="SK"><span style="line-height:115%"> The overall prevalence of <i>S. aureus</i> determined among the collecteded samples was 31.14% (109/350), where, pastry products harbored the highest contamination rate (43.59%), and prepared meals, the lowest contamination rate (18.18%). The strains presented a high level of resistance (58.71-39.44%) for gentamycin and oxacilin, respectively. Moreover, the lowest level of resistance was observed against erythromycin 16.51%, and about 83% of strains presented multidrug resistance.</span></span></span><br> <span style="line-height:115%"><b><span lang="SK"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="letter-spacing:.1pt">Conclusion:</span></span></span></b><span lang="SK"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="letter-spacing:.1pt"> The significative prevalence and the high level of multidrug resistant of <i>S. aureus </i>highlights the seriousness to improve food contamination prevention programs and underlines that good hygiene practices at sale outlets has a major impact on the sanitary quality of commercialized food products.</span></span></span><br> <br> <b><span lang="SK"><span style="line-height:115%">DOI:</span></span></b> <span lang="SK"><span style="line-height:115%">10.18502/jfqhc.10.2.12669</span></span></span></span></span></div> <quillbot-extension-portal></quillbot-extension-portal> Staphylococcus aureus, Prevalence, Drug Resistance, Food 70 75 http://jfqhc.ssu.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-1535-1&slc_lang=en&sid=1 N.F. Chouaib nourelhouda.chouaib@gmail.com 0000-0002-8524-3399 Yes Laboratory of Biotechnology of Rhizobiums and Valorisation of Plants, University Oran1, Ahmed BenBella, Algeria N. Benhamed No Laboratory of Biotechnology of Rhizobiums and Valorisation of Plants, University Oran1, Ahmed BenBella, Algeria, University of Science and Technology of Oran Mohamed Boudiaf, Algeria I. Benyettou No Laboratory of Hygiene of the Wilaya of Oran, Algeria A. Bekki No Laboratory of Biotechnology of Rhizobiums and Valorisation of Plants, University Oran1, Ahmed BenBella, Algeria