Healthy dogs and cats may be transmitting multidrug-resistant microbes to their hospitalized owners.
According to new research to be presented this weekend at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases in Copenhagen, humans may be transmitting these dangerous microbes to their pets.
Drug Resistance Develops In Microbes
The researchers, however, emphasized that the risk of cross-infection is currently low. Dr. Carolin Hackmann of Charité University Hospital Berlin, Germany, and colleagues conducted the study on over 2,800 hospital patients and their companion animals.
The role of pets as potential MDRO reservoirs is a growing concern around the world. When infection-causing microbes (such as bacteria, viruses, or fungi) evolve to become resistant to the drug designed to kill them, this is known as antimicrobial resistance.
According to estimates, antimicrobial-resistant infections killed nearly 1.3 million people and were responsible for nearly 5 million deaths worldwide in 2019.
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Multiple Antibiotics Resistant
Researchers wanted to know if pets (cats and dogs) play a role in MDRO infection in hospital patients in this case-control study.
They concentrated on the most common superbugs found in hospital patients, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE), third-generation cephalosporin-resistant Enterobacterales (3GCRE), and carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales (CRE), all of which are resistant to multiple antibiotics, including penicillin and cephalosporins.
In total, 30% of hospital patients (871/2,891) tested positive for multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs), while 70% (2,020/2,891) tested negative. Dog ownership was 11% (93/871) and cat ownership was 9% (80/871) among those who tested MDRO-positive, and 13% (267/2,020 and 253/2,020, respectively) among those who tested MDRO-negative.
All 626 pet owners were asked to send samples of their pets’ throats and stools. In total, 300 pet owners returned samples from 400 pets. 15% (30/203) of the dogs and 5% (9/197) of the cats tested positive for at least one MDRO. MDROs were phenotypically matching (the same species and antibiotic resistance) between pets and their owners in four cases.
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