Date of Completion
2025
Document Type
Honors College Thesis
Department
Biology
Thesis Type
College of Arts and Science Honors, Honors College
First Advisor
John Barlow
Keywords
Staphylococcus aureus, white-tailed deer, Vermont, whole genome sequencing, antibiotic resistance
Abstract
The zoonotic bacterium Staphylococcus aureus is one studied extensively by researchers in animal and veterinary science due to its importance as a pathogen in both animals and humans. The prevalence of this pathogen has been studied across many species, excluding white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) to the extent of our knowledge since this species is native to North America, and few studies of S. aureus have been conducted in North American wildlife. Analysis of 162 out of 471 white-tailed deer nasal swabs taken from deer killed during the 2021 and 2022 hunting seasons yielded 11 S. aureus positive isolates from 10 deer. Isolate genomes were sequenced and assembled using a hybrid approach combining long-read Oxford Nanopore and short-read Illumina sequencing. All isolates were genetically similar and belonged to the same molecular strain type, ST133, a strain associated with small ruminant species (sheep and goats). Antibiotic susceptibility testing using disc diffusion yielded no phenotypic resistance, although genetic markers of gentamicin resistance were found for 4 isolates through analysis of assembled FASTA files using the Bacterial and Viral Bioinformatics Resource Center (BV-BRC) database.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Maloney, Caitlin E.; Devoe-Talluto, Willow; Roadcap, Elisabeth; Riordan, Anna; Machado de Sant'Anna, Felipe; Despres, Hannah W.; Mosher, Brittany A.; Bruce, Emily A.; and Barlow, John W., "Culture of Vermont White-Tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) Nasal Swabs Reveals Limited Strain Diversity and Antibiotic Resistance of Staphylococcus aureus." (2025). UVM Patrick Leahy Honors College Senior Theses. 737.
https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/hcoltheses/737
