Pets with MRSA superbug infection: MRSA in dogs cats animals

Empowering people in the fight against MRSA

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Methicillin-resistant staphylococci isolated from animals

Sir,

We read with interest the recent article in Veterinary Microbiology ‘Methicillin-resistant staphylococci isolated from animals’ (van Duijkeren et al., 2004). The authors report on the isolation of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) from two animals in the Netherlands and state it was unusual that one of the isolates showed homology to a human MRSA strain.

 

Animal MRSA Review

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Vet Record

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Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Strain between Humans and a Dog

Valentine Leucocidin-Positive, Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Strain between Humans and a Dog

E. van Duijkeren,¹

^* M. J. H. M. Wolfhagen,² M. E. O. C. Heck,³ and W. J. B. Wannet³

Bacteriology Division, Department of Infectious Diseases and Immunology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, The Netherlands,¹ Laboratory of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Isala Clinics, Zwolle, The Netherlands,² National Institute of Public Health and the Environment, Diagnostic Laboratory for Infectious Diseases and Perinatal Screening, Bilthoven, The Netherlands³

Received 1 July 2005/ Returned for modification 17 July 2005/ Accepted 10 September 2005

MRSA carriage in a pet therapy dog

Link: ScienceDirect - Journal of Hospital Infection

         Pet therapy has been shown to improve the wellbeing of patients, and is becoming routine in many hospitals.1 There are currently approximately 4000 dogs participating in schemes across the UK (www. petsastherapy.org). It has been previously advised that veterinarians should routinely screen all animals for skin infections and gastrointestinal pathogens.1 We report an 11-year-old border collie that acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in a district general hospital in the UK after visiting care-of-the-elderly wards. The dog and owner were asymptomatic and had no observed source of MRSA. Swabs from the dog’s nose, scalp and interdigital folds of paws were taken before and after visiting the wards. Swabs were pooled and cultured in nutrient broth containing 7% salt at 30 8C for 24 h and then subcultured to Baird Parker agar with ciprofloxacin (8 mg/L) at 37 8C for 48 h. Only the swabs taken after the ward visit grew MRSA (tube coagulase positive, mannitol fermenting Staphylococcus species). The antibiotic susceptibility profile was typical of MRSA found in the hospital. The mecA gene was detected by polymerase chain reaction. The isolate was confirmed as MRSA and genotyping by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) showed it to be a variant of EMRSA-15 (Staphylococcus Reference Laboratory, Health Protection Agency, Colindale, UK). Following receipt of this result, two other pet therapy dogs were screened before visiting the hospital and were found to be MRSA negative. Sites were individually cultured and not pooled as was done on the initial screen. MRSA screening of the index dog two weeks later was negative. It was not possible to trace individual patients that the dog had visited. Isolates from seven known MRSA patients on the wards visited by the dog were characterized phenotypically and genotypically. All seven isolates were identified as EMRSA-15 and displayed five different PFGE patterns. All differed from the dog isolate. MRSA is an important cause of nosocomial infection.2

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Surveillance of Staphylococcus aureus in Veterinary Teaching Hospitals

Link: Entrez PubMed.

     Staphylococcus aureus isolates (n = 70) from 65 patients (36 canine, 18 equine, 7 bovine, 2 avian, and 2 feline) at seven veterinary teaching hospitals in the United States were studied. The majority of patients (83%) with an S. aureus infection were canine and equine, but this may have reflected a sample bias based on clinic case loads and diagnostic lab submissions at the participating institutions. Fourteen percent of patients with an S. aureus infection were infected with a methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) isolate. Six of seven institutions had at least one MRSA infection during the study. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis on 63 of the 70 isolates yielded 58 unique strains of S. aureus. None of the strain types of the MRSA isolates matched each other or the type of any other S. aureus isolate. The proportions of patients infected with an MRSA isolate were not significantly different between institutions or animal species (P > or = 0.222). Methicillin-resistant S. aureus isolates in this study seemed to be community acquired rather than hospital acquired.

Horse/Human MRSA Transmission

Link: Entrez PubMed.

         There are increasing reports of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection and colonization in horses and evidence that MRSA can be transmitted between horses and humans. The objective of this study was to investigate reports of skin infection in personnel working with a foal with community-associated MRSA colonization and subsequent infection. Clinical diagnostic specimens were collected from individuals reporting skin lesions following contact with the affected foal. Nasal and groin screening swabs were collected from other veterinary personnel that attended a voluntary screening clinic. MRSA skin infections were identified in three neonatal intensive care unit personnel. Nasal colonization was subsequently identified in 10/103 (9.7%) other veterinary hospital personnel. Isolates were indistinguishable by pulsed field gel electrophoresis, classified as Canadian epidemic MRSA-5, possessed SCCmecIV, were negative for the Panton-Valentine leukocidin and were multidrug resistant. Transmission to veterinary personnel despite short-term contact with standard protective barriers highlights the potential importance of MRSA as an emerging zoonotic pathogen, and indicates that further evaluation of interspecies transmission of MRSA and means to prevent zoonotic infection are required.

MRSA: An Emerging Pathogen in Small Animals

Link: Entrez PubMed.

       Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is an important nosocomial pathogen in humans and is increasingly implicated in community-associated infections in people. In household pets, MRSA infections are uncommon but are on the rise, possibly because of the increased prevalence of human MRSA in the community. Clinical MRSA infections in some animals can be life threatening and difficult to treat; however, other animals may develop mild disease or only become colonized. Veterinarians should be aware of the concerns regarding MRSA and should develop an understanding of appropriate disease surveillance, diagnostic testing, and infection control in order to lessen the impact of MRSA on small animals.

Emergence of MRSA infections in horses

Link: Emergence of MRSA infections in horses in a veterinary hospital: strain characterisation and comparison with MRSA from humans.

        Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has become an emerging public health problem worldwide, no longer only associated with healthcare-associated infections. With the exception of some recent reports concerning infections in cats, dogs and horses, infections with MRSA in companion animals have been infrequently reported. Here we submit findings for MRSA infections in horses in a central European university veterinary hospital. Introduction Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has become a worldwide public health problem [1,2]. Increasing prevalence of healthcare-associated MRSA infections is usually associated with a wide dissemination of particular epidemic clonal lineages of the S. aureus population [3]. Since the late 1990s, MRSA has emerged in many countries as a cause of invasive skin infections in the community, independently from the healthcare setting [4-8]. In this context, colonisation and infections with MRSA in domestic animals are of particular interest with regard to a mutual dissemination between humans and animals. The first communication on MRSA infections in domestic animals concerned mastitis cases in dairy cows in Belgium in 1972 [9]. Since that time there have been reports of sporadic cases of infection with MRSA in a variety of other domestic animal species such as horses, chickens, dogs and cats [10-13]. MRSA infections in horses associated with wide dissemination of a particular clonal lineage have been recently documented in Canada [14,15]. Here we report on emergence of MRSA in a university veterinary hospital and on an assessment of the relation of human and animal MRSA isolates by means of molecular typing. This includes SmaI macrorestriction patterns, multilocus sequence typing (MLST) for assessing the core genome of S. aureus and characterisation of SCCmec elements of which at least 5 different groups have so far been described [16]. SCCmec (staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec) elements contain the mecA gene that codes for methicillin resistance [17].

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