Cats and dogs can transmit antibiotic-resistant superbugs to their owners

The US is a country of animal lovers, with more than 65 million American households owning a dog and 46.5 million owning a cat. But new research suggests that our pets may harbor potentially harmful, multi-drug resistant bacteria.

The work of researchers from Portugal and Britain was presented this weekend at the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID) in Spain and showed that antibiotic-resistant bacteria were being passed between sick pets and their healthy owners.

“Recent research indicates that the transmission of antimicrobial resistance bacteria between humans and animals, including pets, is crucial for maintaining resistance levels,” said Juliana Menezes, principal investigator of the project from the Antibiotic Resistance Lab at the University of Lisbon, Portugal. “(Our work) challenges the traditional belief that humans are the main carriers of antimicrobial resistance bacteria in the community,” Menezes added.

The researchers tested urine and poop samples, as well as skin swabs from sick cats and dogs and their healthy owners. The team tested the samples for the presence of a family of bacteria called Enterobacterales, which include E.coli And Klebsiella pneumoniae that can cause serious illnesses in humans, such as meningitis, pneumonia and sepsis. Many of these bacteria are also often resistant to conventional antibiotics and the World Health Organization has called antimicrobial resistance ‘one of the greatest global threats to human health and development’.

More than half of pets tested and more than a third of owners harbored highly antibiotic-resistant bacteria. One dog from Britain had particularly high levels of multidrug resistance E.coli that were resistant to several types of antibiotics commonly used to treat infections.

Some of the bacteria from pets and their respective owners were genetically analyzed to prove that the sick pets had almost certainly passed the bacteria on to their owners. Although some owners tested positive for antibiotic-resistant bacteria, all owners remained healthy at the time of testing. Despite this, some people may be at greater risk of contracting infections from their pets than others, including those who are very young, very old or have weakened immune systems, and the researchers urge caution for people with a sick pet.

“If your pet is not feeling well, consider isolating him in one room to prevent the spread of bacteria throughout the house and thoroughly cleaning the other rooms,” says Menezes.

The project comes from a consortium of research organizations involved in the “PETrisk” consortium, which also includes research groups from Switzerland, Canada and Germany, which aims to investigate the impact of pets on antibiotic resistance.

The researchers concluded that the transmission of antibiotic-resistant bacteria between sick pets and their owners could play a significant role in the spread of antibiotic resistance, and urged regulatory organizations to include analyzes of sick pets and their people in their data.

“Understanding and addressing the transmission of antimicrobial resistance bacteria from pets to humans is essential to effectively combating antimicrobial resistance in both humans and animals,” Menezes said.