Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Antimicrobial resistance in E. coli from pets in Australia
By Saputra, Sugiyono et al.·Published in Veterinary microbiology·2017·School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences, Australia·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Antimicrobial resistance in clinical Escherichia coli isolated from companion animals in Australia.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A study found that dogs and cats in Australia can carry a type of bacteria called Escherichia coli that is resistant to multiple antibiotics, which can make infections harder to treat. In particular, dogs with chronic urinary tract infections (UTIs) who had previously received antibiotic treatment were much more likely to have these resistant bacteria. The research showed that about 18% of E. coli from dogs and 11.7% from cats were multidrug-resistant. This highlights the importance of careful antibiotic use in pets to help prevent these resistant infections.
People also search for: dog urinary tract infection treatment · cat antibiotic resistance symptoms · why is my dog getting UTIs often
Abstract
Multidrug-resistant (MDR) Escherichia coli have become a major public health concern to both humans and animal health. While the frequency of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in clinical E. coli is monitored regularly in human medicine, current frequency of AMR in companion animals remains unknown in Australia. In this study we conducted antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) and where possible, determined potential risk factors for MDR infection among 883 clinical Escherichia coli isolated from dogs (n=514), cats (n=341) and horses (n=28). AST was undertaken for 15 antimicrobial agents according to the Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) guidelines and interpreted using epidemiological cut-off values (ECOFFs) as well as CLSI veterinary and human clinical breakpoints. The AST revealed complete absence of resistance to carbapenems while resistance to amikacin was observed at a low level in isolates from dogs (1.6%) and cats (1.5%) compared to horses (10.7%). Among dog isolates, resistance to fluoroquinolones ranged from 9.1%-9.3% whereas among cat isolates, it ranged from 3.2%-5%. Among dog isolates, the proportion showing a 3rd generation cephalosporin (3GC) non-wild type phenotype was significantly higher (P<0.05) in skin and soft tissue infection (SSTI, n=122) isolates (17.2%-20.5%) compared to urinary tract infection (UTI, n=392) isolates (9.9%-10.2%). The frequency of multidrug resistance was 18.1%, 11.7% and 42.9% in dog, cat and horse isolates, respectively. Risk factor analysis revealed that MDR E. coli isolated from UTI were positively associated with chronicity of infection and previous antimicrobial treatment. Dogs and cats with chronic UTI that had been previously treated with antimicrobials were eight times and six times more likely to be infected with MDR E. coli compared to dogs and cats with non-chronic UTI, and no history of antimicrobial treatment, respectively. This study revealed that pre-existing disease condition and prior antimicrobial use were the major risks associated with UTI with MDR E. coli in companion animals.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29102120/