The risk to public health from the large number of dog stools present on streets of urban areas is cause for concern. Dog faeces may be a serious hazard because they may contain microorganisms that are both pathogenic to humans and resistant to several classes of antibiotics. The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential for zoonotic infections and for the presence of antibiotic resistant bacteria in canine faeces which contaminates the urban environment. A total of 418 canine faecal samples were collected from streets in seven areas of Bari, Southern Italy. We have isolated multi-drug resistant Enterococci and meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus from these dog faecal samples. The presence of the resistant bacteria in an urban environment may represent a public health hazard which requires control measures by competent authorities. No Salmonella, Yersinia or Campylobacter species were isolated. Giardia cysts were detected in 1.9% of the samples. The predominant Enterococcus species were E.faecium (61.6%), E. gallinarum (23.3%) and E. casseliflavus (5.5%). Other species, including E. faecalis were also isolated. These strains were resistant to clindamycin (86.3%), tetracycline (65.7%), erythromycin (60.27%) and ampicillin (47.9%). High-level aminoglycoside resistance (HLAR) was found in 65.7% of enterococci. Resistance to three or more antibiotics and six or more antibiotics were observed in 67.12% and 38.4% of Enterococcus spp., respectively. Resistance to vancomycin and teicoplanin was not detected in any of the Enterococcus spp. isolated. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus was isolated in 0.7% of the faecal samples. Canine faeces left on the streets may represent a risk factor for transmission of microorganisms and a reservoir of multidrug- resistant bacteria thus contributing to the spread of resistance genes into an urban area.

The aim of the work was to compare H. pylori clarithromycin-resistance according two methods. Etest was performed on H. pylori isolated from gastric biopsy samples. TaqMan Real-Time-PCR (RT-PCR) was performed on paraffin-embedded gastric biopsy samples of the same patients. Forty-seven out of 88 strains were resistant to clarithromycin by Etest, whereas RT-PCR detected this resistance on paraffin-embedded specimens of 50 patients. RT-PCR performed on paraffin-embedded biopsy specimens of 47 patients infected with H. pylori resistant to clarithromycin as detected by Etest, revealed the presence of a resistant strain only in 40 samples. RT-PCR performed on samples of 41 patients harbouring clarithromycin-susceptible H. pylori strains showed the presence of 31 susceptible and 10 resistant strains. RT-PCR detected 18 cases with heteroresistant status. The difference between the two tests in detecting clarithromycin-resistance was not statistically significant even if RT-PCR detected more resistant cases. The genotyping resistance on paraffin-embedded gastric biopsy specimens may be used to establish resistance to clarithromycin before the treatment when culture and susceptibility testing are not available. In case of failure of an empirical clarithromycin-based triple antimicrobial treatment, RT-PCR performed on paraffin-embedded biopsy sample will establish the primary resistance to clarithromycin. In addition, this test can be useful for epidemiological investigation as well as for monitoring the evolution of clarithromycin resistance along the time.

[corrected] Development of SO in the absence of previous trauma or surgery is rare. Our case is the first report of a clinically diagnosed SO after an episode of severe Acanthamoeba keratitis.