Molecular Detection of Carbapenem Resistant Gram Negative Bacterial Isolates from Dogs

Abstract

Background: Carbapenems are beta-lactam antibiotics that are considered as the last line of therapy against multidrug resistant extended spectrum beta-lactamase. The resistance to carbapenems predominantly through carbapenemase is one of the most important emerging health problems worldwide in the therapy of clinical infections. The objective of the present study is to determine the presence of carbapenemase encoding genes among Gram- negative bacterial spp. associated with clinical infections in dogs. Methods: 30 Escherichia coli, 11 Klebsiella pneumoniae and three Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolated from urine, swabs from lesional skin and anterior vagina of dogs presented with different clinical ailments formed the samples for the study. Polymerase chain reaction was carried out to detect the presence of carbapenemase encoding genes viz., KPC, NDM, OXA, VIM and IMP among the isolates.Result: Out of the 44 Gram- negative isolates tested, 28 (76.3%) were positive for at least one tested carbapenemase gene. The highest frequency of carbapenemase recorded was for NDM followed by OXA-181, KPC, OXA-48 and VIM. Our study identified a high prevalence of carbapenemases among companion animals like dogs which could act as potential source of transmission of these resistance bacteria or their genomes to humans.