All the nasal swabs collected from goat, pigs, dogs and from animal handlers were used for isolation of Staphylococcus aureus. From a total of 455 samples, 398 isolates were found as purple coloured cocci in clusters. Among the 398 isolates 122 isolates were confirmed as pathogenic Staphylococcus aureus by a positive coagulase test. The biochemical tests like IMViC tests, urease test, oxidase test, nitrate reduction test and catalase tests, confirmed the presence of Staphylococcus aureus. DNase test revealed the presence of blue to purple coloured colonies with clear zones around the colonies which are the characteristic colonies on DNase agar. On blood agar plates the isolates produced β haemolysis. A pannel of 11 antibiotic discs were tested by using the standard disc diffusion method. Among the 126 isolates all of them were not resistant to vancomycin (0%). Maximum resistance was observed for ciprofloxacin (56.78%), followed by ampicillin (48.24%), penicillin (43.96%), gentamycin (42.21%), streptomycin (37.68%), tetracycline (28.89%), erythromycin (23.86%), cephoxitin (23.11%), oxacillin (17.83%) and cephalothin (14.82%). For the detection of MRSA all the isolates were streaked on Hi-crome MeReSa agar plates and the results revealed that 4 isolates were grown as bluish-green coloured colonies.
