Cross-sectional study of Staphyloccus lugdunensis prevalence in cats

Abstract

Staphylococcus lugdunensis is a commensal bacterium in humans and other animals that can cause serious infections. The aim of this research was to estimate the frequency of S. lugdunensis in pet cats and to characterize the S. lugdunensis isolates obtained. The prevalence of S. lugdunensis was 0.77% (4/523) in healthy cats and 1.23% (1/81) in sick cats. The isolates (N = 5), which colonized conjunctival sacs, nares, and the anus, were almost fully phenotypically sensitive to antibiotics, but harbored resistance genes to four chemotherapeutic groups. Their sequence types (STs) included ST2, ST3, ST9, and ST15. There was detected a far lower prevalence of S. lugdunensis in pet cats than is reported in the human population. Nevertheless, the phenotypic and genotypic properties of S. lugdunensis isolates found in the current study were very similar to those described previously in isolates of human origin.