Selected highlights from other veterinary journals

Antimicrobial resistance among urogenital E coli isolates from cats and dogs

K. Harada, A. Niina, Y. Nakai, Y. Kataoka, T. Takahashi

MOST urogenital infections with Escherichia coli involve extraintestinal pathogenic E coli (ExPEC), which have specific virulence factors (VFs) that contribute to extraintestinal pathogenicity. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has been identified in ExPEC from dogs and cats, and this has implications both for the treatment of infected animals and for public health. This study assessed antimicrobial resistance and virulence factors in ExPEC isolates from cats and dogs with urogenital E coli infections.

A total of 104 urogenital E coli isolates from dogs (66 from urine and 19 from genital swabs) and cats (15 urinary, four genital) were studied. The susceptibility of the isolates to nine antimicrobials was assessed by the agar dilution method. Multiplex PCR was used to identify the genes encoding six VFs and to assign the isolates to one of the four main phylogenetic groups of E coli. The genetic diversity of the isolates was assessed by randomly amplified polymorphic DNA analysis.

Of the 104 isolates, 65 were resistant to at least one antimicrobial, and 45 were resistant to three or more and considered multidrug-resistant. Eight isolates were resistant to eight antimicrobials and one to all nine that …