Longitudinal study of ESBL/AmpC-producing Enterobacterales strains sharing between cohabiting healthy companion animals and humans in Portugal and in the United Kingdom

AbstractExtended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)- and plasmid-mediated cephalosporinase (AmpC)-producing Enterobacterales (ESBL/AmpC-E) are an increasing healthcare problem in both human and veterinary medicine. The aim of this study was to investigate the possible sharing of ESBL/AmpC-E strains between healthy companion animals and humans of the same household in Portugal (PT) and the United Kingdom (UK). In a prospective longitudinal study, between 2018 and 2020, faecal samples were collected from healthy dogs (n=90), cats (n=20) and their cohabiting humans (n=119) belonging to 41 PT and 44 UK households. Samples were screened for the presence of ESBL/AmpC-E and carbapenemase-producing bacteria. Clonal relatedness between animal and human strains was established by using REP-PCR fingerprinting method, followed by whole-genome sequencing (WGS) of selected strains. ESBL/AmpC-E strains were detected in companion animals (PT=12.7%,n=8/63; UK=8.5%,n=4/47) and humans (PT=20.7%,n=12/58; UK=6.6%,n=4/61) in at least one timepoint. REP-PCR identified paired multidrug-resistant ESBL/AmpC-producingEscherichia coli strains from companion animals and owners in two Portuguese households (4.8%) and one UK household (2.3%). WGS analysis of nineE. coli strains from these three households confirmed that interhost sharing occurred only between the two animal-human pairs from Portugal. Three shared strains were identified: one CTX-M-15-producingE. coli strain in a cat-human pair (O15-H33-ST93) a...
Source: European Journal of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases - Category: Microbiology Source Type: research