Detection of the mecA Gene by Polymerase Chain Reaction: Bacterial DNA was obtained by the rapid cell lysis method as described by Unal et al (10). For the DNA extraction, 0.1 mL of an overnight culture of bacteria in Mueller-Hinton broth washarvested by centrifuging the broth in a microcentrifuge tube at 16,000×g for 30 seconds. The precipitates were resuspended in 50 μL lysostaphin (100 μg/mL; Sigma) and they were incubated at 37°C for 10 minutes. Following the addition of 50 μL proteinase K (100 μg/mL; Sigma Aldrich) and 150 μL 100 mm Tris (pH 7.5), the suspension was incubated for 10 minutes at 37°C and then boiled for 5 minutes. After centrifugation at 13,000×g for 2 minutes, the supernatant which contained the extracted bacterial DNA was used in the PCR assay.