Occurrence of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria from client-owned pets and their raw meat-based diets

Project Abstract/SummaryOccurrence of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria from client-owned pets and their raw meat-based dietsAdvocates of raw?meat diets claim various health benefits for dogs, and while none ofthe purported benefits have been validated, owners of raw meat?fed animals stand bytheir convictions (1-4). In contrast, a 2-year study conducted by the US Food and DrugAdministration found that raw pet food is more likely than other types of pet food to carrybacteria, including Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes (5). The FDA issued apublic health warning about the risks of raw pet food diets and both the AmericanAnimal Hospital Association and the American Veterinary Medical Association officiallyrecommend against feeding raw meat-based diets to dogs.Numerous studies have validated the concerns associated with raw food diets (RFD),but none has determined the prevalence of drug resistant bacteria (6-8). To addressthis question, fecal specimens will be collected from animals fed a RFD. Samples willalso be collected from animals on a commercial diet, but also receiving antibiotics andothers considered antibiotic naïve. The survey focus will be on multidrug resistantbacteria including vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE), carbapenemase-producingbacteria and colistin resistant Enterobacteriaceae, but random enteric isolates will beselected for testing for antimicrobial resistance.Fecal samples will be submitted in Cary-Blair medium and inoculated onto imipenemcontaining MacConkey agar to select for carbapenem-resistant bacteria. Lucie Bardet-Jean Marc Rolain media will be utilized to select for colistin-resistant bacteria and VRE(9). Conventional biochemical testing including the Vitek 2 Gram-positive and Gram-negative ID cards (BioMerieux) will be utilized for bacterial identifications (10).Antimicrobial susceptibility profiles will be determined by micro broth dilution (Sensititre®automated system; Trek Diagnostics, Westlake, OH, USA) and will includeantimicrobials utilized in the National Antimicrobial Monitoring System. Isolates that areESBL positive will undergo multiplex qPCR for the extended spectrum beta lactamasesblaTEM, blaSHV, blaCTX-M and blaCMY-2 and sequencing to determine the variant(11, 12). Multiplex qPCR platforms will be utilized to examine for plasmid mediatedcolistin resistance genes: mcr-1 to-mcr-9 and tet (M), tet (L), cat, cmlA which conferresistance to the tetracyclines and phenicols (13, 14).