Prevalence and molecular epidemiology of carbapenemase‐producing Enterobacterales isolated from dog and cat faeces submitted to veterinary laboratories in the USA

Abstract

AimsTo estimate the prevalence of carbapenemase‐producing Enterobacterales (CPE) carriage among pets using faecal specimens submitted to veterinary diagnostic laboratories throughout the US. A secondary aim was to employ whole‐genome sequencing (WGS) to characterize isolates of CPE from companion animals and compare them to publicly available CPE genomes.Methods and ResultsTo estimate the prevalence of CPE in companion animals in the USA, a multicenter surveillance study including 8 different veterinary diagnostic laboratories from across the USA was conducted. Briefly, remnant faecal specimens from dogs and cats were screened using two selective agar plates (CHROMID Carba and MacConkey with 1 mg/L cefotaxime and 0.125 mg/L meropenem) and presumptive CPE isolates screened by the modified carbapenemase inactivation method for carbapenemase production. A total of 2393 specimens were screened and yielded 196 isolates for carbapenemase screening. A total of 5 isolates from 4 dogs and 1 cat at 3 different veterinary diagnostic laboratories were confirmed to produce a carbapenemase (0.21%). Whole‐genome sequencing (WGS) revealed two E. coli (ST167) isolates that both produced an NDM‐5 carbapenemase, two Enterobacter hormaechei (ST171) isolates that produced an NDM‐5 carbapenemase and a KPC‐4 carbapenemase respectively and one Klebsiella oxytoca (ST199) that produced an Oxa‐48‐type carbapenemase. Both E. coli isolates were found to be within at least 22 SNPs of previously characterized canine and human CPE isolates.ConclusionsThis study demonstrates that the prevalence of CPE among companion animals is relatively low (0.21%) but that given the genetic relatedness of animal isolates to human isolates, additional surveillance is needed.