First outbreak of PVL-positive nonmultiresistant MRSA in a neonatal ICU in Australia: comparison of MALDI-TOF and SNP-plus-binary gene typing.

The purpose of this brief report is to describe the first outbreak of a community-associated nonmultiresistant and PVL-positive MRSA strain (CC30) in a neonatal intensive care unit in Australia. The utility of matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionisation time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS) for microbial typing is compared with single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) plus binary gene analysis. The composite correlation index analysis of the MALDI-TOF-MS data demonstrated the similar inter-strain relatedness found with the SNP-plus-binary gene typing used to confirm the outbreak. The evolving spread of MRSA emphasizes the importance of surveillance, infection control vigilance and the ongoing investigation of rapid typing methods for MRSA.