Evidence that multidrug-resistant bacteria are being passed between pet cats and dogs and their owners will be presented at this year’s European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) in Copenhagen, Denmark (15-18 April).
Evidence that multidrug-resistant bacteria are being passed between pet cats and dogs and their owners will be presented at this year’s European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) in Copenhagen, Denmark (15-18 April).
Six pets in Portugal and one in the UK were carrying antibiotic-resistant bacteria similar to those found in their owners, a Portuguese study found.
The finding underlines the importance of including pet-owning households in programs to reduce the spread of antimicrobial resistance.
Antibiotic resistance is reaching dangerously high levels around the world. Drug-resistant infections kill an estimated 700,000 people a year globally and, with the figure projected to rise to 10 million by 2050 if no action is taken, the World Health Organization (WHO) classes antibiotic resistance as one of the greatest public health threats facing humanity.
Dogs, cats and other pets are known to contribute to the spread of antibiotic-resistant pathogens that can cause human disease. Juliana Menezes and colleagues from the Antibiotic Resistance Lab at the Centre of Interdisciplinary Research in Animal Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Lisbon, Portugal wanted to find out if pets being treated with antibiotics for infections are sharing such pathogens with their owners.
