Occurrence of carbapenem-resistant organisms among pet animals suffering from respiratory illness: a possible public health risk

Abstract

The emergence of carbapenem-resistant organisms (CROs) has become a great challenge alarming the public health community. Thus, the current study was conducted to investigate the occurrence of CROs among pet animals suffering from respiratory illness. Nasal swabs from 100 pet animals (51 dogs and 49 cats) showing respiratory illness were screened for CROs. The obtained swabs were streaked onto CHROMagar mSuper CARBA TM medium followed by sub-culturing on MacConkey agar. Colonies were identified by cultural characteristics, Gram staining, and biochemical tests as well as molecular techniques. Then, the identified isolates were confirmed to be CROs after being non-susceptible to at least one of four carbapenem antibiotics using the Kirby-Bauer method. The confirmed CRO isolates were also investigated on molecular basis for carbapenemase-encoding genes ( bla NDM , bla KPC , bla OXA-48 , bla VIM , bla IMP ). Out of 100 pet animals, 6 yielded CROs with an overall occurrence rate 6% (3.9% for all tested dogs and 8.2% for all tested cats). The obtained CRO isolates were Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae , Pseudomonas aeruginosa , and Enterobacter cloacae with the following distribution among the examined animals 3%, 1%, 1%, and 1%, respectively. Bla NDM was the only detected carbapenemase-encoding gene among the isolates and it was detected in two cat isolates. In conclusion, the results of the current study highlight the emergence of carbapenem-resistant organisms among pet animals suffering from respiratory illness which may have a possible public health risk.