Table 4. Description of the studied populations, corresponding used methods, and objectives.

Studied populations	Of which	Of which	Of which	Used methods	Objectives
158 retrospectively gathered CC398 S. aureus strains	105 human MSSA strains	105 strains isolated in mainland France	89 strains from infections11 from colonization5 unknown	Clinical informationAntimicrobial susceptibilityspa typingDNA microarraysPCR CC398†	Phenotypic and genotypic characterization of CC398 MSSA isolated from human beings, and comparison to CC398 MRSA isolated from animals
	53 animal MRSA strains	45 strains from pigs8 from cattle	Only colonization
85 prospectively isolated MSSA strains of human colonization	21 CC398 MSSA strains			agr typingPCR CC398	Estimation of CC398 MSSA prevalence
132 prospectively isolated MSSA strains of human infective endocarditis	10 CC398 MSSA strains*			spa typingDNA microarraysPCR CC398	Estimation of CC398 MSSA prevalence

^*The 10 strains isolated from infective endocarditis are included in the 89 strains from infections.

^†The belonging of the strains to CC398 was confirmed by MLST in case of discrepancies between previous typing techniques. All strains were isolated in mainland France.