Molecular Characteristics of NDM-5-Producingfrom a Cat and a Dog in South Korea.

Abstract

Carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE) have been very rarely reported in companion animals in South Korea. In this study, we aimed to investigate the molecular characteristics and relatedness of two New Delhi metallo-β-lactamase (NDM-5)-producingisolates from rectal swabs of a dog and a cat hospitalized in different veterinary hospitals in South Korea during 2019. Antimicrobial susceptibility was tested by the Etest and broth microdilution method. PCR and sequencing were performed to detect antimicrobial resistance genes. Plasmid replicon typing and Southern blotting hybridization were performed to determine the replication origin of the plasmid and location of thegene, respectively. Their macrorestriction profiles forisolates were assessed by multilocus sequence typing (MLST) and pulse-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). The two carbapenem-resistantisolates harbored thegene located on the IncX3 plasmid. Allele sequence analysis for MLST showed that the twoisolates were attributed to sequence type 410 (ST410). The NDM-5-producingisolate from the cat presented high clonal similarity (94%) assessed by PFGE to a previously reported NDM-5-producingST410 isolate from a dog hospitalized in the same hospital in 2017. The twoisolates for the genetic environment surrounding thegene had the same structure: IS-----IS. This study revealed a direct transmission of the NDM-5-producingST410 isolate between a dog and a cat. This is the first report of NDM-5 carbapenemase-producingsolate from a cat in South Korea.