TABLE 1.

The prevalence of plasmids in S. aureus isolated from various retail meats by alkaline lysis (TENS) and PFGE.

Source	No. of isolates	No. of isolates with plasmids
		Detected by TENS		Detected by PFGE
		2–60 kb	>60 kb	2–60 kb	>60 kb
Chicken	55	55(100%)	4(7.3%)	30(54.0%)	27(49.1%)
Beef liver	43	43(100%)	4(9.3%)	11(25.6%)	19(44.2%)
Pork	42	42(100%)	7(16.7%)	11(26.2%)	19(45.2%)
Chicken liver	29	29(100%)	3(10.3%)	13(44.8%)	15(51.7%)
Beef	24	24(100%)	2(8.3%)	6(25.0%)	8(33.3%)
Turkey	22	22(100%)	10(45.4%)	15(68.2%)	12(54.5%)
Chicken gizzard	7	7(100%)	1(14.3%)	2(28.6%)	1(14.3%)
Total	222	222(100%)	31(14.0%)	88(39.6%)	101(45.5%)