Emergence of OXA-48 carbapenemase-producing Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae in dogs

Abstract

Objectives: To evaluate the possible occurrence of carbapenemase-producing Escherichia coli and Klebsiella spp. strains in domestic animals. Methods:Veterinary clinical E. coli (n1/41175)andKlebsiella spp. (n1/4136) isolates consecutively collected fromlivestockandcompanion animals inGermanyfromJune 2012to October 2012were screened for their susceptibility to carbapenems using the agar disc diffusion test. Carbapenemase geneswere characterized byPCR and sequencing; conjugation assays were performed. Carbapenemase-positive isolates were assigned to phylogenetic lineages by multilocus sequence typing and the clonal relatedness was determined using macrorestriction analysis and subsequent PFGE. Results: Carbapenem non-susceptible isolates of Klebsiella pneumoniae (n1/45) and E. coli (n1/43) were obtained fromsixdogs hospitalized in asingle veterinary clinic in Hessia,Germany, partlyat thesametimeand consecutively over the study period. All isolates harboured carbapenemase gene blaOXA-48 located within Tn1999.2 transposons on conjugative ~60 kb plasmids. The K. pneumoniae isolates belonged to sequence type ST15, pulsotype 1, and coexpressed CTX-M-15, SHV-28, OXA-1 and TEM-1. Two E. coli isolates were assigned to ST1196 and pulsotype 2 and coproduced CMY-2, SHV-12 and TEM-1, while the third E. coli isolate was of ST1431 (pulsotype 3), and possessed blaCTX-M-1, blaOXA-2 and blaTEM-1. Conclusions: This is the first known report of OXA-48-producing bacteria from companion animals. The clonal nature of the K. pneumoniae and two E. coli isolates suggests a nosocomial dissemination rather than repeated introduction by individual patients into the clinic. © The Author 2013. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. All rights reserved.