Dog Owners Issued Health Warning Over Drug-Resistant Bacteria

Diarrhea from pet dogs may be spreading multi-drug-resistant E. coli, presenting a severe risk to their owners, a study has found.

The research, published in Plos One, found that dogs with the condition shed the bacteria in five out of 10 cases. E. coli is one of the main causes of food poisoning, urinary tract infections and bloodstream infections in humans, and, in some more severe cases, it can lead to life-threatening conditions such as sepsis.

It can usually be treated with the antibiotic ciprofloxacin, but scientists are discovering that some strains of E. coli have become resistant to antibiotics, making them more of a danger.

Chinese scientists reached these new findings by collecting 185 fecal samples from pet dogs between August 2021 and June 2022.

They found E. coli strains in 135 samples. Of these, 118 were resistant to at least one antimicrobial agent, the study reported.

“As we know, pet dogs are the most important companion animals with close contact to humans, and there have been many studies showing that E. coli from pets can be ‘shared' with their owners through close contact and living environment,” Zhijun Zhong, a professor at the College of Veterinary Medicine, Sichuan Agricultural University, told Newsweek.

“Thus, the high occurrence of multi-drug-resistant E. coli with a diversity of antibiotic resistance genes and virulence-associated genes in pet dogs may cause the healthy concern of infectious diseases caused by drug-resistant and pathogenic E. coli to owners.”

Diarrhea in dogs can sometimes be a sign of more serious conditions, however it can also happen after eating something that does not agree with their stomach.

Ciprofloxacin, the drug often used to treat E. coli infections, is one of the most important antibiotics in the world, according to the World Health Organization, as it is used for a wide range of bacterial infections.

Once certain strains of E. coli started to become resistant to the antibiotic, doctors reduced its use. This led to a decrease in resistant strains, however some are still being detected.

Researchers of this study were surprised to find multi-drug-resistant E. coli also containing antibiotic resistance genes and virulence-associated genes, Zhijun said.

“It suggests that pet dogs may have become a reservoir for drug-resistant and pathogenic E. coli,” Zhijun said. “In addition, our findings have important implications for a preliminary understanding of the characteristics of multi-drug-resistant E. coli from diarrhoeal dogs and for assessing the potential risk of resistance and virulence in canine E. coli. Future investigations in this area will include more samples and expand sampling areas. We will also explore the use of high-throughput sequencing or whole genome sequencing to provide more comprehensive information on multi-drug-resistant E. coli strains from diarrhoeal dogs.”

Once E. coli is ingested, the bacteria can remain in the body for years before it makes a person unwell. Antibiotic-resistant E. coli is of particular concern to scientists as it makes these infections caused by the bacteria harder to treat, increasing the chance that they will become more serious and lead to hospitalizations.