Antimicrobial resistance is on the rise in certain pathogens that infect pets and their owners. This has raised concerns about the use of antibiotics and the transfer of resistance elements in small animal clinics. We sampled a surgery unit, diagnostic rooms after disinfection, and a dog with chronic urinary tract infection (UTI), in a small animal clinic in Austria, and isolated/characterized phages and Escherichia (E.) coli for antimicrobial resistance, resistance genes and transduction ability. Neither the coliphages nor E. coli were isolated in the 20 samples of the surgery units and diagnostic rooms. From the urinary tract of the dog, we recovered 57 E. coli isolates and 60 coliphages. All of the E. coli isolates were determined as resistant against nalidixic acid, 47 against ampicillin, 34 against sulfonamides, and 33 against streptomycin. No isolate held resistance against tetracycline, trimethoprim, kanamycin, or chloramphenicol. Among the 60 phages, 29 tested positive for one or more resistance gene(s) by PCR, but none was able to transduce it to a laboratory strain or to an E. coli isolated from samples. Nevertheless, six phages out of 60 were able to transduce ampicillin resistance (bla gene) after being grown on a puc19 harboring E. coli strain.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.