Dogs Are a Reservoir of Ampicillin-Resistant Enterococcus faecium Lineages Associated with Human Infections

Abstract

Ampicillin resistance is a marker for hospital-associated Enterococcus faecium. Feces from 208 dogs were selectively screened for the occurrence of ampicillin-resistant E. faecium (AREF). AREF was detected in 42 (23%) of 183 dogs screened in a cross-sectional study in the United Kingdom and in 19 (76%) of 25 dogs studied longitudinally in Denmark. AREF carriage was intermittent in all dogs studied longitudinally. Multilocus sequence typing of 63 canine AREF isolates revealed the presence of 13 distinct sequence types. Approximately 76% of the isolates belonged to hospital-adapted clonal complex 17 (CC17), including those of sequence types ST-78 and ST-192, which are widespread in European and Asian hospitals. Longitudinal screening of 18 healthy humans living in contact with 13 of the dogs under study resulted in the identification of a single, intermittent CC17 carrier. This person carried one of the sequence types (ST-78) recovered from his dog. Based on PCR and Southern hybridization analyses, the putative virulence gene cluster from orf903 to orf907 was widespread in canine AREF isolates (present in 97%), whereas orf2351 (present in 26% of isolates) and orf2430 (present in 31%) were strongly associated with CC17-related sequence types (P < 0.05). Surprisingly, esp and hyl were not detected in any of the isolates. The antimicrobial resistance profiles of canine AREF isolates generally differed from those previously described for clinical human isolates. The results indicate that dogs are frequent carriers of CC17-related lineages and may play a role in the spread of this nosocomial pathogen. The distinctive virulence and antimicrobial resistance profiles observed among canine AREF isolates raise interesting questions about the origin and evolution of the strains causing human infections.

Nosocomial Infections and their Surveillance in Veterinary Hospitals

“…In the early 1980's the emergence of Hospital associated Ampicillin resistant Enterococci (ARE) in USA preceded rise of vancomycin resistance in enterococci, which happend in the 1990s, is the reason why virtually all VRE of nosocomial infections in humans are also ampicillin resistant (Grayson et al, 1991) but ARE associated with human infections remain vancomycin susceptible (Tremblay et al, 2013). The hospital associated ARE have been recovered from dogs suffering from urinary tract infections in US (Simjee et al, 2002), Denmark (Damborg et al, 2009), Korea (Kwon et al, 2012) and also from the faeces of dogs departing the intensive care unit of an American veterinary medicine teaching hospital (Ghosh et al, 2011). In a study conducted in veterinary teaching hospital of Canada with the objective of characterizing the ARE strains of dogs and human revealed the cross-transmission between humans and dogs and further supports the significance of antibiotic stewardship to avoid zoonotic spread of canine ARE (Tremblay et al, 2013).…”

Köpek, Kedi ve İnsan Orijinli Enterococcus feacium İzolatlarının Biofilm Üretimi, Genotip ve Antibiyotik Direnç Profillerinin Belirlenmesi

“…Similar results cited by recently [5] . In contrast, no resistance to vancomycin was found several studies on enterococci from dogs and cats [3,14,21,24] . In our study only 3 cat and one human isolates were found to be resistant to vancomycin by phenotypically.…”

“…Over the last two decades, nosocomial infections caused by enterococci have emerged and their incidence has increased [14] . Biofilm production has been reported in some enterococcal infections.…”

“…Antibiotic resistances have been reported to better define the links between animals and humans [6,18,19] . Cats and dogs have played an important role in the human community [20,21] , which allows them to have a good relationship with humans and contribute to their welfare; however, this relationship also poses serious risks of transmission of infectious agents to human [14] . Some enterococci are inherently resistant to some penicillins; and in the past few years, they have also shown increased resistance to vancomycin, cephalosporins, and aminoglycosides in nosocomial infections [3] .…”

Enteroccoccus in Water, Sediment and Clams in a Tropical Environment,Maracaibo Lake, Venezuela

“…The emergence of Enterococcus faecalis and Enterococcus faecium was paralleled by increases in glycopeptide and high-level aminoglycoside resistance, both important compounds for the treatment of human infections [10]. Although Enterococcus faecalis is the causative agent in most enterococcal infections, a partial replacement of Enterococcus faecalis by Enterococcus faecium has been noted in the last years, and presently, up to one-third of enterococcal infections in some countries is attributed to this species [11,12].…”