The Antimicrobial Resistant Gram-negative Bacteria Originated from Canines, Felines, Environments, and Humans in South Korea

The report of distribution and antimicrobial resistance rates in clinical hospitals in South Korea has been well-documented. However, the description of prevalence and antimicrobial resistance rate in veterinary hospitals is relatively rare. The aims of this study were to describe the prevalence and antimicrobial resistance rate for gram-negative bacteria originated from canines, felines, environments, and humans in South Korea. We collected bacteria from the rectal swabs of companion animals (dogs and cats), stool samples of humans (pet owners and medical staffs), and swabs of veterinary hospital surfaced in 16 veterinary hospitals. The isolates for antimicrobial susceptibility were performed by the agar disk diffusion method. Third- and fourth-generation extended-spectrum cephalosporin (ESC) resistance genes were identified by PCR and sequencing. A total of 740 Escherichia coli , 133 Klebsiella pneumoniae, 132 Acinetobacter baumannii , and 100 Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates were recovered on MacConkey agar from companion animals, humans, and veterinary hospital environment samples for 2019 - 2020. The ESC resistant rates showed 36.3%, 40.6%, 18.2%, and 0% in E. coli , K. pneumoniae , A. baumannii , and P. aeruginosa, respectively. The most of the ESC resistance genes were blaCMY-2, blaDHA-1, and blaCTX-M-type. Our results indicate that the antimicrobial resistance rate including ESC was similar to that in the clinical field except carbapenem. In addition, the genus, species, and an timicrobial resistance determinants of gram-negative bacteria collected from samples were similar between the clinical and veterinary fields.