Resumo

Brazil is one of the richest countries in biodiversity worldwide, being estimated to house 1,800 bird species. Illegal wildlife trade is considered the most lucrative activity in the world, after to weapons and illicit drug trade. The Brazilian law considers crime the capture of wild animals and their maintenance in captivity without legal permission. The manipulation of these animals and the disposal of their sanitary waste can pose a contamination risk to those involved in surveillance/policing activities, veterinary, among other activities dealing with those animals. Part of this demand includes infections caused by pathogens with zoonotic potential. Staphylococcus spp. are the etiological agents of severe animal diseases, such as suppurative disease, mastitis, arthritis, and urinary tract infections, as a consequence of different virulence factors. The prevalence of Staphylococcus species was investigated in cloacal swab samples from wild birds of different families. The antimicrobial susceptibility test was conducted by CLSI guidelines and genotypic characteristics by PCR assay. Overall, Staphylococcus growth was detected in 42.9% cloacal samples, represented by coagulase-positive species: S. aureus, S. intermedius, S. schleiferi subsp. coagulans and coagulase-negative species: S. sciuri, S. gallinarum and miscellanea of other coagulase-negative species. Highest percentual of antimicrobial resistance was to ampicillin (66.6%), oxacillin (33.3%), clindamycin (25.5%), cefoxitin (23.5%) and tetracyclin (21.6%), and reduced to gentamycin (9.8%), eritromycin (7.8%), ciprofloxacin (2.0%), and absent for vancomycin. 21.6% Staphylococcus was mecA-positive and 27.5% was blaZ gene-positive which determines production of β-lactamases, most of them represented by: S. aureus, S. intermedius, S. schleiferi subsp.coagulans, S. sciuri, S. gallinarum, S. carnosus, S. xylosus, S. chromogenes, S. haemolyticus, S. hyicus and S. saccharolyticus. The presence of Staphylococcus sp. resistant to β–lactamics, lincosamides, tetracycline, and also the presence of mecA and blaZ genes associated with multidrug phenotype showed that wild bird feces represents an important route to transmission of this pathogen throughout international frontiers fostered by the commercialization of exotic animals and close contact with humans.