Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Rapid PCR test detects fluoroquinolone resistance in dog and cat E
By Shaheen, Bashar W et al.·Published in Veterinary microbiology·2009·Department of Anatomy, United States·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Detection of fluoroquinolone resistance level in clinical canine and feline Escherichia coli pathogens using rapid real-time PCR assay.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A study found that a new test can quickly identify if E. coli bacteria in dogs and cats are resistant to a common antibiotic called fluoroquinolone, which is often used for urinary tract infections. This test can detect very low levels of the bacteria in urine samples and provides results in about two hours, making it much faster than traditional methods. The researchers tested 70 samples and found that the new test was highly accurate, correctly identifying resistant strains almost 88% of the time. This could help veterinarians choose the best treatment for pets with infections.
People also search for: dog urinary tract infection treatment · cat E. coli resistance test · fluoroquinolone for dog infections
Abstract
Fluoroquinolones are used to treat infections caused by Escherichia coli in canine and feline veterinary patients, particularly those infecting the urinary tract. The gyrA gene is a primary target causing fluoroquinolone resistance in gram negative coliforms, with mutations in codons 83 and 87 generally associated with high-level of resistance E. coli clinical isolates. We have developed a fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) quantitative PCR to identify enrofloxacin-resistance in clinical E. coli isolates that carry mutations in codons 83 and 87 of gyrA. This real-time quantitative PCR assay is rapid, economical, and sensitive compared with cultured antimicrobial susceptibility testing. The assay identified as few as four genome copies per reaction from culture and 19 genome copies in urine. For the 70 isolates tested, the sensitivity was 87.5% (95% CI=75-95.3%) (n=42/48), specificity was 100% (95% CI=87.3-100%) (n=22/22), whereas accuracy was 91.4% (95% CI=82.3-97%) (n=64/70). Furthermore, we were able to accurately differentiate between the wild type and mutants E. coli directly from infected canine urine samples (n=5) within 2 h. These results were confirmed by sequence alignments of the PCR products and comparison with the susceptibility testing. The FRET-PCR assay appears to have promising clinical application as an early diagnostic tool for rapid and sensitive detection and differentiation of the level of fluoroquinolone resistance among clinical E. coli isolates that may facilitate design of the dosing regimen.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19596530/