A total of 200 random samples of milk and milk products represented by kareish cheese, yoghurt and icecream
(50 for each) were examined microbiologically for the presence of Staphylococcus aureus, its
enterotoxigencity and its antibiotic sensitivity. Staphylococcus aureus was isolated from 8 (16%) milk
samples, 15 (30%) kareish cheese, 4 (8%) yoghurt and 11 (22%) ice-cream samples. All S. aureus isolates
exhibited clumping factor using kits for reliable latex agglutination test. The susceptibility of the isolates was
determined for 12 antimicrobial drugs using disc diffusion assay. The majority of strains were susceptible to
ofloxacin and ampicillin + sulbactam (100%), vancomycin and tetracycline (94.7%), norfloxacin and
sulphamethoxazole + trimethoprim (89.5%), chloramphenicol (73.3%) but they were resistant to oxacillin and
metronidazole (100%). Amplification of coagulase gene (coa) using uniplex PCR, staphylococcal enterotoxin
genes (sea, seb, sec, sed and see) and methicillin-resistant S. aureus (mecA) gene using multiplex PCR
revealed that, 11/11(100%) of the examined samples were positive for both coa and mecA genes. While, sea
produced by 5 (45.45%) strains, sec and sed produced by 4 (36.36%) strains and seb and see were not produced
by any strains