Short communicationIdentification and characterization of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Staphylococcus haemolyticus and Staphylococcus pettenkoferi from a small animal clinic
Introduction
Among methicillin-resistant staphylococci (MRS), methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolates – especially those of clonal complex (CC) 398 – have been found at different prevalences among different farm animal species (Feßler et al., 2012, Monecke et al., 2013). In pets, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus pseudintermedius (MRSP) isolates have been found frequently (Weese and van Duijkeren, 2010). MRSA, but especially MRSP, often show expanded resistance to antimicrobial agents and the treatment of infections caused by these bacteria represents a real challenge for veterinary practitioners (Perreten et al., 2010, Kadlec et al., 2010). Comparatively little is known about the presence and antimicrobial resistance of methicillin-resistant members of other staphylococcal species. Animal clinics in which sick animals, that might shed pathogenic bacteria, are present and antimicrobial agents are frequently applied may constitute a suitable environment for the development and spread of multiresistant staphylococci including MRS. A screening for carriage of MRSA and MRSP of canine and feline patients before entering a small animal clinic confirmed that dogs and cats can act as vehicles and bring these bacteria into the clinic environment (Nienhoff et al., 2011a, Nienhoff et al., 2011b). The presence of MRS in animals does not only bear the risk of difficult-to-treat infections of the animals, but also constitutes a risk for the clinic employees who are in close contact with the animals and may become occupationally colonized (Guardabassi et al., 2004). Furthermore, contaminated clinic facilities can serve as a source of infections (Aksoy et al., 2010). In this regard, the stationary area within a clinic is a critical place, as animals that are vulnerable for infections are present and the selective pressure due to the use of antimicrobial agents is relatively high.
The aim of this study was to characterize MRS isolated from a small animal clinic in order to gain information about their distribution within the clinic and to investigate a possible transmission between animal patients, clinic environment and employees.
Section snippets
Isolation and identification of methicillin-resistant staphylococci
In total, 72 swabs were taken from pets (n = 10, nasopharyngeal swabs), the clinic environment (n = 58, surface swabs) and employees (n = 4, nasal swabs). Pet swabs were obtained from hospitalized animals (nine cats, one dog) exclusively, environmental swabs comprised clinic facilities in the stationary area (n = 34), the operating room (n = 15) and the consulting rooms (n = 9). After overnight enrichment in Mueller-Hinton (MH)-broth with 6.5% sodium chloride, the samples were cultured on MH-agar plates
Identification and characterization of MRS isolates
From 72 swabs taken, 34 MRS [S. aureus (n = 5), S. epidermidis (n = 21), Staphylococcus haemolyticus (n = 6), Staphylococcus pettenkoferi (n = 2)] could be isolated. These included six MRS from hospitalized cats without clinical staphylococcal infections, four MRS from healthy employees and 24 MRS from the clinic environment (Table 1). Most MRS were detected in the stationary area of the clinic whereas all samples taken from the operating room and the consulting rooms, except one from a stethoscope,
Conclusions
Although nosocomial infections due to methicillin-resistant coagulase-negative staphylococci are still only rarely reported in veterinary medicine, the adaptation of these pathogens to the clinic environment should be seen with caution. All MRS species detected in this study have already been reported as causes of wound or blood stream infections in human medicine (Mihaila et al., 2012, Yu et al., 2010) and some of them have also been described to be associated with infections in dogs and cats (
Acknowledgements
The authors thank the participating small animal clinic and Kerstin Meyer, Vivian Hensel, and Roswitha Becker for expert technical assistance. This study was financially supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) through the German Aerospace Center (DLR), grant number 01KI1014D (MedVet-Staph).
References (32)
- et al.
Characterization of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus CC398 obtained from humans and animals on dairy farms
Vet. Microbiol.
(2012) - et al.
Usefulness of mec-associated direct repeat unit (dru) typing in the epidemiological analysis of highly clonal methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in Scotland
Clin. Microbiol. Infect.
(2008) - et al.
A dual outbreak of bloodstream infections with linezolid-resistant Staphylococcus epidermidis and Staphylococcus pettenkoferi in a liver Intensive Care Unit
Int. J. Antimicrob. Agents
(2012) - et al.
Genotyping of Staphylococcus aureus isolates from diseased poultry
Vet. Microbiol.
(2013) - et al.
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus pseudintermedius among dogs admitted to a small animal hospital
Vet. Microbiol.
(2011) - et al.
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus pseudintermedius among cats admitted to a veterinary teaching hospital
Vet. Microbiol.
(2011) - et al.
Success through diversity – how Staphylococcus epidermidis establishes as a nosocomial pathogen
Int. J. Med. Microbiol.
(2010) - et al.
Assessing the antimicrobial susceptibility of bacteria obtained from animals
Vet. Microbiol.
(2010) - et al.
“Staphylococcus pettenkoferi,” a novel staphylococcal species isolated from clinical specimens
Diagn. Microbiol. Infect. Dis.
(2002) - et al.
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus pseudintermedius in veterinary medicine
Vet. Microbiol.
(2010)
Evaluation of surface contamination with staphylococci in a veterinary hospital using a quantitative microbiological method
J. Small Anim. Pract.
Performance Standards for Antimicrobial Disk and Dilution Susceptibility Tests for Bacteria Isolated From Animals-Third Edition: Approved Standard M31-A3
Multilocus sequence typing for characterization of methicillin-resistant and methicillin-susceptible clones of Staphylococcus aureus
J. Clin. Microbiol.
Characterization of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus isolates from food and food products of poultry origin in Germany
Appl. Environ. Microbiol.
Characterization of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus ST398 from cases of bovine mastitis
J. Antimicrob. Chemother.
Resident cats in small animal veterinary hospitals carry multi-drug resistant enterococci and are likely involved in cross-contamination of the hospital environment
Front. Microbiol.
Cited by (29)
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus pseudintermedius (MRSP) among employees and in the environment of a small animal hospital
2018, Veterinary MicrobiologyCitation Excerpt :In comparison, Nienhoff et al. (2009) could show two cases of human-to-animal transmission, in which dogs were colonized or infected by MRSA originating from their owners. Moreover, MRS can also be present in the veterinary staff (Ishihara et al., 2010; Weiß et al., 2013; Walter et al., 2016) from which they can spread into the veterinary clinical environment. MRSA and MRSP are often multiresistant to antimicrobial agents and thus, can often survive well in an environment, such as a veterinary hospital, where diseased animals that might carry and excrete MRSA and/or MRSP are present and antimicrobial agents are used.
Characterization of canine and feline methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus pseudintermedius (MRSP) from Thailand
2016, Veterinary MicrobiologyCitation Excerpt :Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923 served as quality control strain (CLSI, 2013b). In resistant isolates (CLSI, 2013b), antimicrobial resistance genes were detected by specific PCR assays as described previously (Weiß et al., 2013). Molecular typing comprised macrorestriction analysis with subsequent pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), spa typing and dru typing as described previously (Perreten et al., 2010; Weiß et al., 2013; Kadlec et al., 2015).
Antimicrobial resistance and population structure of Staphylococcus epidermidis recovered from animals and humans
2015, Veterinary MicrobiologyCitation Excerpt :About 70–95% of S. epidermidis strains circulating in the human hospital environment have been estimated to be methicillin-resistant; most of them display high resistance rates to other antimicrobial classes too (Otto, 2012). In veterinary medicine, S. epidermidis is one of the main etiological agents of ruminant intramammary infections (Feßler et al., 2010; Onni et al., 2011) and it is also implicated in diverse infections in companion animals (Kern and Perreten, 2013; Weiß et al., 2013). Moreover, S. epidermidis carriage has been reported in livestock (Zhang et al., 2009; Huber et al., 2011; Bhargava and Zhang, 2012; Vanderhaeghen et al., 2012) and domestic animals (Bagcigil et al., 2007).
Identification of ABC transporter genes conferring combined pleuromutilin-lincosamide-streptogramin A resistance in bovine methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and coagulase-negative staphylococci
2015, Veterinary MicrobiologyCitation Excerpt :The initial classification into S. aureus and CoNS was done by MBFG. The 13 CoNS isolates were further identified to species level using the ID32 Staph system (bioMérieux, Nürtingen, Germany) and 16S rDNA sequencing (Weiß et al., 2013). The MRSA isolates were subjected to two CC398-specific PCRs and to spa typing as described earlier (Kadlec et al., 2009; Feßler et al., 2011).