Published: 24 Nov 2014 | Last Updated: 24 Nov 2014 16:24:59

Researchers from the Queen Mother Hospital for Animals studying Staphylococcus pseudintermedius, the predominant dog skin pathogen, showed for the first time that resistance is increasing to the most clinically relevant antimicrobials.Results from a large longitudinal retrospective survey including over 14,500 bacterial isolates from two UK laboratories showed a trend of increasing resistance over the 10-year period.

The study also confirmed the emergence of meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus pseudintermedius (MRSP), a multidrug-resistant small animal pathogen with similarities to MRSA. These data show a new, worrying development in contrast to earlier comparable studies from Glasgow Veterinary School (Normand et al. 2000) and from the RVC (Lloyd et al. 1996) that had indicated a stable, predictable resistance pattern for S. pseudintermedius from dogs during the 1980s and 1990s.

They support efforts to include companion animals in surveillance activities of antimicrobial resistance amongst bacterial pathogens from animals in the UK as contact between pets and owners is often close and provides opportunity for spread of resistance between hosts.

Citation:

Beever L, Bond R, Graham PA, Jackson B, Lloyd DH, Loeffler A. Increasing antimicrobial resistance in clinical isolates of Staphylococcus intermedius group bacteria and emergence of MRSP in the UK. Veterinary Record. 2014 Nov 6. doi: 10.1136/vr.102651.