Campylobacter spp. is a commonly reported food-borne disease with major consequences for morbidity. In conjunction with predicted increases in temperature, proliferation in the survival of microorganisms in hotter environments is expected. This is likely to lead, in turn, to an increase in contamination of food and water and a rise in numbers of cases of infectious gastroenteritis. This study assessed the relationship of Campylobacter spp. with temperature and heatwaves, in Adelaide, South Australia.

We estimated the effect of (i) maximum temperature and (ii) heatwaves on daily Campylobacter cases during the warm seasons (1 October to 31 March) from 1990 to 2012 using Poisson regression models.

There was no evidence of a substantive effect of maximum temperature per 1 °C rise (incidence rate ratio (IRR) 0·995, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 0·993–0·997) nor heatwaves (IRR 0·906, 95% CI 0·800–1·026) on Campylobacter cases. In relation to heatwave intensity, which is the daily maximum temperature during a heatwave, notifications decreased by 19% within a temperature range of 39–40·9 °C (IRR 0·811, 95% CI 0·692–0·952). We found little evidence of an increase in risk and lack of association between Campylobacter cases and temperature or heatwaves in the warm seasons. Heatwave intensity may play a role in that notifications decreased with higher temperatures. Further examination of the role of behavioural and environmental factors in an effort to reduce the risk of increased Campylobacter cases is warranted.

The nasal carriage of 407 mothers before, during and after admission to a maternity hospital and that of their babies during and after hospital stay was investigated together with the nasal carriage by the hospital staff.

The nasal carrier rate among mothers admitted to hospital was 38%, 40% of these strains being resistant to penicillin.

The nasal carrier rate among the nursing staff was 38 and 72% of these were resistant to penicillin.

If a population is swabbed only once approximately 25% of the carriers will be missed. Those showing slight carriage were no more likely to be missed than those showing heavy carriage. The concentration of organisms in the nose is evidently varying continuously.

Heavy carriers are no more likely to transmit than light carriers and it is therefore not right to report on the profusion or otherwise of growth if that implies a greater chance of transmission.

The biggest increase in resistance among nursing staff strains occurred in the non-typable group which could be explained by resistance to phage developing concurrent with resistance to antibiotics.

The difference in phage-distribution between patient and staff strains centred in group II which formed 19% of patient strains but only 7% of hospital strains.

The carrier rate was no higher for those with a history of hospital admission within 12 months or without a history of staphylococcal sepsis.

Those giving a history of penicillin therapy had the same resistance rate as those without a history of such therapy.

1. The trypanosome of the gold-fish has been successfully cultivated on the medium of McNeal and Novy.

2. Preparatory to division in culture, the original trypanosome as found in the blood of the fish assumes a somewhat tadpole-like appearance, the endoplasm and its contained structures being collected together in the swollen posterior end. The kineto-nucleus now lies close to, and alongside of, the tropho-uncleus, and the latter has become swollen and loose in structure with its chromatin broken up into chromidia. The anterior third or more of the trypano-some undergoes little or no change in form and does not take part in division. It is thus easily seen how the product of the preliminary division comes to have a Crithidia-like appearance.

3. The product of this preliminary division—Crithidia-like by the relative position of kineto-and tropho-nuclei—is capable of freely multiplying.

According to Brumpt it is in the Crithidia-like form that free multiplication of the eel trypanosome first takes place in the stomach of Hemiclepsis. It may well be that in this case also the Crithidia-like form is arrived at by steps such as are here figured and described.

4. Crithidia-like forms are found at all stages of the culture and along with them at various stages other forms where the body is elongated and the kineto-nucleus still close to the tropho-nucleus, and yet other forms where the kineto-nucleus until true trypanosome-like forms are reached.

5. These trypanosome-like forms (resembling mammalian trypanosomes rather than those of the fish from which they are derived) are most numerous in the later stages of the culture.

A method of titrating influenza virus-neutralizing antibodies is described. This method is based on the technique for cultivating virus in fragments of chick chorio-allantoic membrane using a special plastic tray with cups for 100 replicates. The neutralization test cannot be made directly by adding the antiserum to the cups in which the virus is growing in the membrane fragments because there is a significant non-specific inhibitory effect. Therefore, use is made of the observation that virus added to the cups is rapidly fixed by the membrane so that, after a short time, the membrane may be washed and transferred to a fresh cup which will later be found to contain the new virus released from the membrane.

In the neutralization test the membrane fragments are exposed to virus-serum mixtures for 18 hr. and then transferred to other cups without serum to determine which pieces have become infected. The titre of neutralizing antibodies is defined as the serum dilution which will protect from infection with 100 ID 50 of virus, half of a large number of replicate pieces of membrane.

The neutralization technique has been applied to the antigenic comparison of six strains of influenza virus. The results support the relationships disclosed between the six strains by a complement-fixation technique. It is suggested, however, that the neutralization technique, because of its greater specificity, and because of its dependence on the infectivity of the strain, is not as satisfactory as the complement-fixation test for strain comparisons. Apart from its use for titrating neutralizing antibodies, the technique may also be of value for proving the virtual identity of two virus strains and in the selection of strains for a vaccine.

It is a pleasure to acknowledge the help given by Dr Isaacs of the WHO Influenza Centre. Not only did he provide many of the virus strains and antisera, but he also undertook the purification of the WS strain.

A sentinel surveillance system for the control of sexually transmitted diseases (STD) among foreigners was developed in Italy in 1991. From January 1991 to June 1995, 4030 foreigners with a new STD episode were reported. More than one-third of them were North-Africans. The most frequent STDs were non-specific urethritis and genital warts among men, and non-specific vaginitis and latent syphilis among women. The overall HIV prevalence was 5%, with large differences in rates in people from different continents. Very high HIV-positivity rates were observed among homosexuals and homosexual IDUs from Central–South America, with 39·1% and 77·8% seropositive individuals respectively.

These data stress the need for increased knowledge of both the spread of and risk factors for STDs among immigrants. Particular attention should be paid to counselling procedures focused on the prevention of risk behaviours for acquiring STDs and HIV infection.

On 13 June 2013, a fever and diarrhoea outbreak occurred in a boarding school in Sichuan Province. We conducted a field investigation and compared food exposure of 81 case students and 104 control students (years 7 and 8) in order to identify the source of infection. There were 401 cases identified (399 students and two cooks). The attack rates were 23–46% in nursery, primary, and secondary schools, but 0% in the high school. Eighty-five percent of case students, consumed cowpea salad compared to 60% of control students at lunch on 12 June (odds ratio 3·1, 95% confidence interval 1·3–7·8). The cowpeas were stored at room temperature for 3 h in a bucket previously used to store raw ingredients. The bucket was cleaned using water without a disinfectant. There were two buckets of cowpea, one for the high-school students and another for the other students. This Salmonella outbreak was likely caused by the cowpea salad due to cross-contamination via a storage bucket.

The sources of airborne bacteria within living quarters are minute droplet nuclei which remain suspended in the air following expulsion from a carrier and contaminated particles which have become suspended from dried environmental deposits. Since group A streptococci may be isolated from environmental deposits in populations experiencing an epidemic of streptococcal respiratory disease (Loosli, Lemon, Wise & Robertson, 1952), it has been assumed that contaminated particles of dust serve as an important reservoir of infection. Indeed, many of our measures employed to control respiratory infection in recent years have been directed against this reservoir.

Any conclusions that are reached in such an enquiry as this can only be put forward very tentatively, for they are based (1) upon limited data which cannot be free entirely from error, and (2) upon the averaging of individual results drawn, it is true, from the same class, but from families varying considerably in economic status. For this reason, without much further investigation, any generalisation would be out of place, and the conclusions summarised below are put forward not as definite results but only as indications of the actual facts.

(1) In view of the fact that minimum wage legislation for agricultural workers is being introduced in answer to the statements that the economic status of these workers is deplorably low, it is important to bring forward any facts relating to the actual condition of the rural families.

(2) For an investigation of these conditions, Essex (rural districts) was chosen as the field of enquiry in 1923, and for purposes of comparison and confirmation of results earlier rural investigations have been utilised.

(3) A study of the experimental work on metabolism suggests that the agricultural labourer would certainly need a gross amount of at least 3300 calories per day, and that this assumption will not be likely to err on the side of excess.

(4) The Essex studies of 1923 give a mean value of 2872 calories per man value per day and only 17 per cent. of the families secure over 3300 calories per man per day.

(5) This result is not at variance with the conclusions reached in earlier investigations in rural areas, and the suggestion accordingly is that underfeeding is, to some extent, present in the rural areas. (Lusk writes “it is evident… that one may reduce the basal requirement of energy by undernutrition, and that this process may largely economise food, but that to accomplish a given amount of work a fixed amount of food-fuel is required, irrespective of the nutritive condition of the organism.”)

(6) This under-feeding occurs although nearly three-quarters of the total income is spent on food (leaving a very small amount for other essentials and practically nothing for non-essentials), and although the diet is substantially increased by the consumption of home produce. Without the latter the diet would be seriously deficient.

(7) In the Essex studies nearly one-third of the money spent on food was devoted to bread and flour.

(8) On the other hand, in comparison with urban studies, the rural diet compares very favourably with that of urban workers possessed of a higher money income.

(9) This advantage to the rural family is gained by (a) a larger percentage expenditure on food; (b) a less varied diet containing a substantially smaller amount of meats and hence less animal protein; a substantially larger amount of breadstuffs and hence more carbohydrates in place of fats1; (c) by the consumption of home produce, which, however, entails, in its turn, a lengthening of the day's work and increased needs for food. Without this home produce the diets would compare very unfavourably with those of the urban workers studied. With it, the Vitamine content, as well as the energy value of the diet, must be substantially increased.

(10) In spite of the diet being low there is little evidence of malnutrition amoung the rural children of Essex, and their physique is better, age for age, than that of urban children, living on a diet equivalent or superior in energy value. Other factors, especially the “racial” factor and the “fresh air and sunlight” factor, however, must exert such an influence that the efficacy of the diets cannot be satisfactorily measured by a comparison of heights and weights.

In connection with recent investigations on the spread of bacterial infection among mice, the possible effect of variations in the virulence of the infecting organism has, inevitably, formed one of the problems for study.

1. V strains of Bact. typhosum can be sterilized by means of merthiolate or colloidal silver without destructive effect on either the Vi or O antigens.

2. Suspensions in physiological saline sterilized and preserved by the addition of either merthiolate or silver retain their property of stimulating Vi antibody formation in the rabbit for at least one year if stored at 0–2° C, but when stored at 23–25° C. this property is lost after 4 months' storage.

3. The Vi antibody-stimulating property of a merthiolate-killed and preserved suspension in physiological saline is almost completely destroyed by an exposure of 5 days at 37° C. or 4 hr. at 60° C.

4. Bact. typhosum bacilli killed with merthiolate or alcohol, and dried with acetone, show no loss of Vi antigen when stored in the dry state for 1 year at 23–25° C, or after 3 months at 37° C.

5. Suspensions sterilized and preserved with merthiolate in 32% saline will withstand 50 days' storage at 37° C, or 7 months at 23–25° C, without significant loss of their Vi antibody-stimulating properties.

6. Suspensions in 32% saline can be sterilized by an exposure to 60° C. for 2 hr., and even after 4 hr. exposure at this temperature, show no loss of Vi antigen content.

7. Suspensions killed by merthiolate or alcohol, and preserved by the addition of 25% alcohol in physiological saline, failed to stimulate Vi antibody formation in the rabbit after being stored for 20 days at 37° C.

8. The application of these findings to the production of a stable T.A.B.C. vaccine of enhanced immunological qualities is discussed.

9. The effect of mixing Bact. typhosum with tetanus formol-toxoid has been examined, and the advisability of employing heat-killed-phenolized vaccine mixed with tetanus formol-toxoid for combined immunization against tetanus and typhoid infections is discussed.

10. A suggested technique for the preparation, supply, and administration of two new types of T.A.B.C. vaccine is described.

A cross-sectional survey was conducted to determine prevalence and assess risk factors for carriage of antibiotic resistant strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae in healthy school children in Hong Kong. Throat swabs were collected from 1455 subjects and written questionnaires providing demographic data and medical history were completed by parents. The overall carriage rate of Streptococcus pneumoniae was 3·5%, of which 49% were penicillin resistant. High levels of resistance to tetracycline (73%), erythromycin (52%), trimethoprim (66%) and ciprofloxacin (57%) were observed. Carriage was associated with presence of a younger sibling (OR = 1·79) and use of antibiotics (OR = 2·31). High use of day care and small size of housing units did not result in a high rate of carriage. The low rate of carriage may be linked to high use of antibiotics, geographical factors or ethnicity. High rates of antibiotic resistance reflect heavy use of antibiotics by general practitioners.

Consumption of poultry meat is considered as one of the main sources of human campylobacteriosis, and there is clearly a need for new surveillance and control measures based on quantitative data on Campylobacter spp. colonization dynamics in broiler chickens. We conducted four experimental infection trials, using four isolators during each infection trial to evaluate colonization of individual broiler chickens by Campylobacter jejuni over time. Individual and pooled faecal samples were obtained at days 4, 7 and 12 post-inoculation (p.i.) and caecal samples at day 12 p.i. There were large differences between broiler chickens in the number of C. jejuni in caecal and faecal material. Faecal samples of C. jejuni ranged from 4·0 to 9·4 log c.f.u./g and from 4·8 to 9·3 log c.f.u./g in the caeca. Faecal c.f.u./g decreased with time p.i. Most variation in c.f.u. for faecal and caecal samples was attributed to broiler chickens and a minor part to isolators, whereas infection trials did not affect the total variance. The results showed that pooled samples within isolators had lower c.f.u./g compared to the arithmetic mean of the individual samples. There was a significant correlation between faecal c.f.u./g at days 4 and 7 p.i., days 7 and 12 p.i. and for caecal and faecal c.f.u./g at day 12 p.i.

Microsporida are known as opportunistic unicellular organisms and have recently been reclassified as fungi that have been frequently reported from patients with congenital and acquired immunity failure disorders, worldwide. However, use of immunosuppressive medications in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients significantly decreases overall immunity, and increases their susceptibility to opportunistic infections. Totally, 71 stool samples were collected from IBD patients consisted of 69 ulcerative colitis (UC) patients and two Crohn's disease (CD) patients. All patients had taken immunosuppressive and/or immunomodulator drugs for at least 3 weeks. DNA was extracted from all stool samples and Nested PCR was performed using genus-specific primers based on small subunit ribosomal RNA (SSU rRNA) gene. Fisher's Exact Test was applied to evaluate statistical association between microsporidia infection and sex, age and types of IBD. Mean of age ± s.d., women and men percentage of the attended patients were 36·17 ± 11·93, 60·6%, and 39·4%, respectively. A 440-bp fragment of SSU rRNA gene attributed to Enterocytozoon bieneusi was amplified from 12·7% of IBD patients. No Encephalitozoon DNA was detected in the samples. No microsporidia-positive sample was found in CD patients. Fisher's Exact Test showed that there was no statistically significant correlation between intestinal microsporidiosis and age, sex, and IBD types with P values: 0·389, 1·00, and 1·00, respectively. This study has shown IBD patients undergoing immunosuppressive/immunomodulators medications, which may be susceptible to intestinal microsporida infection. E. bieneusi is the commonest intestinal microsporidan reported from IBD patients.

A comparison was undertaken of several serological tests in determining the response of chickens and turkeys experimentally infected with the A 514 strain of Mycoplasma gallisepticum.

After a single intratracheal inoculation of chickens with a culture of the organism, the highest titres were obtained by the indirect complement fixation (ICF) test, followed by the tube agglutination (TA), haemagglutination inhibition (HI), slide agglutination (SA) and metabolic inhibition (MI) tests. By all these tests positive titres were observed within the first week and peak titres between the first and second weeks. At 5 months there was no positive reaction by the ICF test but most chickens gave positive readings by the TA, HI and SA tests for at least 14 months after infection, but turkey sera became negative by all tests after 3 months.

A disadvantage of the ICF test was that sera up to a dilution of 1/8 and 1/16 for chicken and turkey respectively were anticomplementary, and in turkeys this masked the ICF titre, which presumably was low following one intratracheal inoculation. Titres in turkeys with the TA, HI and SA tests followed the pattern seen with chickens and were generally lower than those found by other workers probably because of the avirulent nature of the inoculum used.

The WB test was the least sensitive of the agglutination tests but is useful as a flock test which can be undertaken on the farm.

The MI test gave the lowest titres of all and antibodies could be detected for only 4 months following one intratracheal inoculation. Even with serum prepared by multiple inoculations in chickens the titre was never higher than 1/32 compared with 1/1024 for serum similarly prepared in rabbits.

Precipitins were detected by the agar gel method in the sera of chickens and turkeys after two intratracheal inoculations but in only some of the chickens and none of the turkeys after one inoculation.

By all tests higher titres were observed with chicken than turkey sera and antibodies persisted for a longer time.

Re-infection of chickens when antibodies to the initial infection had become low, and of turkeys when antibodies were no longer detectable, gave rise to an anamnestic response with titres which were higher than before.

Antiserum to M. gallisepticum prepared in chickens is comparable with that prepared in rabbits except for low titres by the MI test.

A Spanish household was identified through a Public Health follow up on a Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC)-positive 14-month-old girl reporting bloody diarrhoea, with the four household members experiencing either symptomatic or asymptomatic STEC and/or atypical enteropathogenic E. coli (aEPEC) shedding. In total, two different O76:H19 STEC strains and six aEPEC strains belonging to multiple serotypes were isolated and characterized in the household during a 5-month period. Prolonged asymptomatic shedding of O76:H19 STEC and O51:H49 aEPEC was detected in two family members. Although there was no conclusive evidence, consumption of vegetables fertilized with sheep manure was the suspected source of infection. This study highlights the risk of cross-infections posed by prolonged asymptomatic carriage and close household contact between family members, and illustrates the importance of molecular epidemiology in understanding disease clusters.

This study primarily aimed to estimate the association between influenza vaccination and the occurrence of hospitalization for acute respiratory or cardiovascular diseases, or all-cause death during the influenza season in an elderly population in South Africa. We conducted a nested case-control study using data from a cohort of 45 522 elderly members of a private medical funding organization during the moderate 2004 influenza season. In 1282 (2·8%) subjects the combined outcome occurred and the influenza vaccination rate in controls was 15·4%. After adjustments for measured confounders, vaccination was associated with a statistically significant reduction of 19% (95% confidence interval 3·1–32·9) in the combined outcome. Post-hoc sensitivity analysis of the potential impact of potential healthy user bias showed that confounding, if present, could have caused this finding. Our data were inconclusive regarding the benefits of influenza vaccination in elderly persons in South Africa and given the low vaccine uptake, long-term follow-up is warranted.

Nutritional factors and infectious agents may contribute to paediatric growth deficits in low- and middle-income countries; however, the contribution of enteric pathogens is only beginning to be understood. We analysed the stool from children <5 years old from an open cohort, cluster-randomised controlled trial of a point-of-collection water chlorinator in urban Bangladesh. We compared the presence/absence of 15 enteric pathogens detected via multiplex, molecular methods in the stool with concurrent Z-scores/Z-score cut-offs (−2 standard deviations (s.d.)) for height-for-age (HAZ/stunting), weight-for-age (WAZ/underweight) and weight-for-height (WHZ/wasting), adjusted for sociodemographic and trial-related factors, and measured caregiver-reported diarrhoea. Enteric pathogen prevalence in the stool was high (88% had ≥1 enteric pathogen, most commonly Giardia spp. (40%), Salmonella enterica (33%), enterotoxigenic E. coli (28%) and Shigella spp. (27%)) while reported 7-day diarrhoea prevalence was 6%, suggesting high subclinical infection rates. Many children were stunted (26%) or underweight (24%). Adjusted models suggested Giardia spp. detection was associated with lower HAZ (−0.22 s.d., 95% CI −0.44 to 0.00; prevalence ratio for stunting: 1.39, 95% CI 0.94–2.06) and potentially lower WAZ. No pathogens were associated with reported diarrhoea in adjusted models. Giardia spp. carriage may be associated with growth faltering, but not diarrhoea, in this and similar low-income settings. Stool-based enteric pathogen detection provides a direct indication of previous exposure that may be useful as a broader endpoint of trials of environmental interventions.

In this paper the pathological and the bacteriological findings in ten instances of naturally acquired tuberculosis in ten different species of animals are recorded. The tubercle bacilli obtained in culture from five species (bat, bear, bison, hedgehog and mink), all cases of fatal tuberculosis, were of the bovine type. The bacilli from a case of localised glandular tuberculosis in a goat and one of tuberculosis of the pancreas in a kangaroo were of the avian type. The bacilli from a case of generalised retrogressive tuberculosis in a horse, of minimal thoracic tuberculosis in a calf and cutaneous and glandular tuberculosis in a parrot were of the human type. These results amplify the evidence already published which shows that each of the three types of tubercle bacilli (bovine, human and avian) is able to cause natural tuberculosis in many different species of animals other than that which is its normal habitat.

The bovine bacillus which is transmitted to animals almost exclusively by tuberculous bovines is responsible for the greater part, especially the generalised and fatal forms, of the tuberculous disease occurring naturally in farm and domestic mammals and for a not inconsiderable amount of tuberculosis in human beings.

The avian bacillus whose natural host is the domestic fowl can infect casually many species of mammals, namely the pig, the ox, the sheep, the goat, the horse, the guinea-pig and the rabbit and in Zoological Gardens several marsupial species. Instances of its transmission to the different species of farm mammals are rare, except in the case of the pig, and the disease produced is usually limited and confined to the glands adjacent to the points of entry of the bacilli. This type of bacillus may however cause severe generalised and fatal disease in the pig, sheep, rabbit and marsupials.

The human bacillus has a narrower range of pathogenicity than either the bovine or the avian bacillus. This type can infect the pig, the calf and the horse, but does not produce progressive tuberculosis in these species. It causes cutaneous tuberculosis in parrots and is one cause of tuberculosis in the dog and in various species of animals kept in captivity, namely the guinea-pig, monkey, gnu, antelope, peccary, etc., in which species infection is followed by generalisation and progression of the disease.

The evidence accumulated regarding the susceptibility of various species of animals to the three types of tubercle bacilli under farm and domestic conditions and in captivity may be summed up as follows.

All three types of bacilli can infect the ox, pig, horse, guinea-pig and rabbit.

Two types of bacilli have been found in the following species; viz. bovine and avian in the sheep, the goat and Australian marsupials; bovine and human in the domestic dog and in the ape, monkey and Ungulata in captivity; human and avian in the parrot.

Only one type of bacillus has so far been obtained from domestic fowls (the avian), the domestic cat, hedgehog, mink and ferret (the bovine) and members of several species in captivity.

Urban slum environments in the tropics are conducive to the proliferation and the spread of rodent-borne zoonotic pathogens to humans. Calodium hepaticum (Brancroft, 1893) is a zoonotic nematode known to infect a variety of mammalian hosts, including humans. Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus) are considered the most important mammalian host of C. hepaticum and are therefore a potentially useful species to inform estimates of the risk to humans living in urban slum environments. There is a lack of studies systematically evaluating the role of demographic and environmental factors that influence both carriage and intensity of infection of C. hepaticum in rodents from urban slum areas within tropical regions. Carriage and the intensity of infection of C. hepaticum were studied in 402 Norway rats over a 2-year period in an urban slum in Salvador, Brazil. Overall, prevalence in Norway rats was 83% (337/402). Independent risk factors for C. hepaticum carriage in R. norvegicus were age and valley of capture. Of those infected the proportion with gross liver involvement (i.e. >75% of the liver affected, a proxy for a high level intensity of infection), was low (8%, 26/337). Sixty soil samples were collected from ten locations to estimate levels of environmental contamination and provide information on the potential risk to humans of contracting C. hepaticum from the environment. Sixty percent (6/10) of the sites were contaminated with C. hepaticum. High carriage levels of C. hepaticum within Norway rats and sub-standard living conditions within slum areas may increase the risk to humans of exposure to the infective eggs of C. hepaticum. This study supports the need for further studies to assess whether humans are becoming infected within this community and whether C. hepaticum is posing a significant risk to human health.

Staphylococcus aureus has been recognised as one of the important zoonotic pathogens. However, knowledge about the epidemiology and genetic characteristics of S. aureus in rabbits was limited. The aim of this study was to determine the characteristics of 281 S. aureus isolated from dead rabbits of nine rabbit farms in Fujian Province, China. All the isolates were characterised by multi-locus sequencing typing, detection of virulence factors and antimicrobial susceptibility test. The results showed that the 281 isolates were grouped into two sequence types, ST121 (13.52%, 38/281) and ST398 (86.48%, 243/281). Surprisingly, the ST121 strains were only recovered from the lung samples from one of the nine rabbit farms studied. In the 281 isolates, the virulence genes of nuc, hla, hlb, clfA, clfB and fnbpA were positive, whereas the sea, seb, tsst, eta and etb genes were negative. Notably, the 38 ST121 isolates carried the pvl gene. All the 281 isolates were methicillin-susceptible S. aureus, and the isolates were susceptible to most of the used antibiotics, except for streptomycin, kanamycin, azithromycin and penicillin, and the resistance rates of which were 23.84%, 19.57%, 16.01% and 11.03%, respectively. This study first described the epidemiology and characteristics of S. aureus in rabbits in Fujian Province, which will help in tracking the evolution of epidemic strains and preventing the rabbit–human transmission events.