This study aimed to characterize the antimicrobial resistance and virulence of
Enterococcus
from dogs and cats in Northeast China and evaluate its zoonotic risk based on a
total of 469 enterococci strains from 610 samples, including 238 strains of
E. faecium
and 128 strains of
E. faecalis
. The isolation rate from police dog
samples was 93.79%, pet dog samples was 69.90% and pet cat samples was 76.67%. The differences in the prevalence of
E. faecalis
among different hosts were statistically
significant (
P
<0.05). The assays showed that most of the virulence genes detected were existed in
E. faecalis
and police dogs carried the least number of
virulence genes. The correlation between enterococcal surface protein (
esp
) and aggregation substance (
asa1
) was determined. Enterococci are most resistant
to tetracycline and erythromycin, 68.92% of the isolates were classified as multiple drug resistant. Significant differences (
P
<0.01) were found between
E.
faecium
and
E. faecalis
in the resistance rates of nine antimicrobials. Four positive and four negative correlations were found between virulence genes and
antimicrobial resistance. The results show that
Enterococcus
colonization and excretion in dogs and cats were related to animal species and living environments. Some
correlation between virulence factors and antimicrobial resistance was obtained. This study confirmed the presence of strains carrying multiple virulence factors and antimicrobial resistance
at the same time, suggesting a public health risk for dogs and cats as reservoirs of enterococci.
To study antimicrobial resistance and virulence genes of Klebsiella pneumoniae and Raoultella strains isolated from captive giant pandas. Non-duplicate fecal samples were collected from 128 giant pandas during 2017–2019. All isolated microbial strains were tested for antimicrobial drug susceptibility using BD verification panels. Four extended-spectrum β-lactamase resistance genes, nine virulence genes and six capsular serotype genes were detected using PCR. 42 K. pneumoniae and nine Raoultella strains were isolated from different giant pandas. Antibiotic resistance rates were 1.9%–23.5%, except for ampicillin, and 7.8% of the isolates were multidrug-resistant to 7–10 antibiotic classes. This is the first time that a multidrug-resistant R. ornithinolytica strain has been isolated from captive giant pandas. The blaTEM, blaCTX-M, blaSHV and blaDHA genes were detected in four MDR ESBL- K. pneumoniae strains. The rmpA, iutA, ybtS, iroN and iroB genes were positively detected in 11.7% of the isolates. Capsular serotype (K2, K5, K54 and K57) genes were all detected in four K. pneumoniae strains, and one was identified as hypervirulent. This study showed that MDR ESBL- K. pneumoniae, hypervirulent K. pneumoniae, MDR R. ornithinolytica and the colistin-resistant strain may pose risks to captive giant pandas and their keepers, and that the diversity of antibiotic resistance and virulence genes in Klebsiella and Raoultella should be monitored regularly.
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