Characteristics of Dogs with Biofilm‐Forming Escherichia Coli Urinary Tract Infections

Abstract

BackgroundBacterial urinary tract infections (UTIs) are common in companion animals. Increasing awareness of biofilm‐forming bacteria raises concern regarding the appropriate diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of UTIs associated with these organisms.Hypothesis/ObjectivesTo (1) describe the population of dogs with UTIs associated with biofilm‐forming Escherichia coli and (2) determine whether or not clinical differences exist between dogs with biofilm‐forming E. coli UTIs and dogs with nonbiofilm‐forming E. coli UTIs. We hypothesized that there would be no difference in the population characteristics, but that biofilm‐formation would be more prevalent in dogs with chronic, complicated, and asymptomatic UTIs.AnimalsSeventy‐six client‐owned dogs with E. coli UTIs, divided into 2 groups based on the biofilm‐forming capability of stored bacterial isolates as assessed by the crystal violet assay.MethodsRetrospective cross‐sectional study. Medical records of the affected dogs were reviewed and their population and infection characteristics were compared.ResultsMost (52.6%) E. coli isolates were capable of forming biofilms. Biofilm‐forming E. coli had a lower likelihood (P < .001) of multidrug resistance than did nonbiofilm‐forming E. coli. No statistically significant differences were identified between the population or infection characteristics of the 2 groups of dogs.Conclusions and Clinical Importance Escherichia coli isolated from canine urinary tracts are frequently capable of forming biofilms. Because no reliable clinical features allowed exclusion of biofilm formation, the potential for biofilm formation should be considered whenever E. coli UTI is diagnosed. The association of antibiotic resistance and biofilm potential may affect treatment of UTIs, but additional investigation is warranted.

Biofilm Formation of Staphylococcus aureus from Pets, Livestock, and Wild Animals: Relationship with Clonal Lineages and Antimicrobial Resistance

“…It is suggested to be responsible for about 80% of all chronic human infections [ 48 ]. However, the role of biofilm formation in animal infections is not well understood, since biofilm studies in animals are uncommonly reported, and most studies conducted so far focus mainly on bovine mastitis [ 37 , 49 ]. Animal-adapted S. aureus has different characteristics and may behave differently from human S. aureus , for example, S. aureus ST398 in animals are usually associated with methicillin- and tetracycline-resistance [ 50 ].…”

Pathogenomics and clinical recurrence influence biofilm capacity of Escherichia coli isolated from canine urinary tract infections

“…While our findings show higher percentages of biofilm formation at 24 hours compared to a previous survey among canines, our prevalence of biofilm formation aligned with a previous study of urinary associated E . coli using a similar methodology [ 13 , 14 ].…”

“…These observations suggests that UPEC may mix-and-match virulence traits to express biofilm phenotypes. Similarly, certain antimicrobial resistance phenotypes and genes, particularly those that confer fluoroquinolone resistance, have been associated with biofilm formation [ 10 , 13 ]. However, the relationship between AMR and biofilms is inconsistently reported across the literature and suggest that the true relationship is unknown [ 14 , 15 ].…”

Elucidating the resistance repertoire, biofilm production, and phylogenetic characteristics of multidrug‐resistant Escherichia coli isolated from community ponds: A study from West Bengal, India

“…E. coli are known to produce and maintain biofilm that acts as a shield to protect the colonizing flora (Silva et al, 2014), and here, biofilm formation was evident in all the 57 isolates. Although some authors claim that biofilm production has a negligible bearing upon drug resistance (Kern et al, 2018), others concluded biofilm as an important tool for chronic infection and pathogenicity maintenance, directly affecting the morbidity of patients with chronic bacterial diseases (Clinton & Carter, 2015; Ponnusamy et al, 2012). A recent study conducted by our group has also established a strong correlation between biofilm production and multidrug resistance (Banerjee et al, 2020).…”