Cats And Dogs Can Spread Antibiotic Resistant Superbugs To Owners

The U.S. is a country of animal lovers, with over 65 million American households owning a dog and 46.5 million having a cat. But new research suggests that our pets could be harboring potentially harmful, multi-drug resistant bacteria.

The work co-led between researchers in Portugal and the U.K. was presented this weekend at the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID) in Spain and showed that antibiotic resistant bacteria was transferred 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 in maintaining resistance levels,” said Juliana Menezes, lead researcher on 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,” added Menezes.

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 includes E.coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae which can cause serious illnesses in people, such as meningitis, pneumonia and sepsis. Many of these bacteria are also frequently resistant to conventional antibiotics and the World Health Organization has called antimicrobial resistance “one of the top global public health and development threats.”

Over half of the pets tested and over a third of the owners harbored highly antibiotic resistant bacteria. One dog from the U.K, had particularly large levels of multi-drug resistant E.coli which were resistant to several types of antibiotics commonly used to treat infections.

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

“When your pet is unwell, consider isolating them in one room to prevent the spread of bacteria throughout the house and clean the other rooms thoroughly,” said Menezes.

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

The researchers concluded that transfer of antibiotic resistant bacteria between sick pets and their owners might have an important role in the spread of antibiotic resistance, urging monitoring organizations to incorporate analysis of sick pets and their humans into their data.

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