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Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only Publication Acceptance Date: 8/25/2008 Publication Date: 8/25/2008 Citation: Jackson, C.R. 2008. Prevalence of enterococci from dogs and cats in the US.Georgia Southern University. August 25,2008. Statesboro, Georgia. Interpretive Summary: Technical Abstract: The contribution of dogs and cats as reservoirs of antimicrobial resistant enterococci remains largely undefined. This is increasingly important considering the possibility of transfer of bacteria from companion animals to the human host. In this study, dogs and cats from veterinary clinics were screened for the presence of enterococci. A total of 420 enterococci were isolated from nasal, teeth, rectal, belly and hindquarters sites of 155 dogs and 121 cats. Of the animals, 80% (124/155) of dogs and 60% (72/121) of cats were positive for enterococci. From dog samples (n=275), 32% (n=87) of hindquarter samples, 31% (n=86) of rectal samples, and 29% (n=79) of belly samples were positive for enterococci while the majority of isolates originated from rectal samples (53/145; 37%) from cats. The predominant species identified was Enterococcus faecalis (n=105) from dogs and E. hirae (n=63) from cats. Significantly more E. faecalis were isolated from rectal samples than any other enterococcal species (P<0.05) for both dogs and cats indicating preferential isolation of enterococcal species from specific sites. The highest levels of resistance was to ciprofloxacin in E. faecium (9/10; 90%), chloramphenicol resistance in E. faecalis (17/20; 85%) and gentamicin resistance in E. faecalis (19/24; 79%) all from dogs and nitrofurantoin resistance in E. faecium (15/19; 79%) from cats. Multi-drug resistance (MDR) (resistance is greater than or equal to 2 antimicrobials) was observed with groups of isolates resistant to as few as two and as many as eight antimicrobials. This study demonstrated that dogs and cats are a common source of antimicrobial resistant enterococci. |
