Pet owners beware: You could catch a superbug just by touching your dog or cat: Experts issue dire warnings about the spread of drug-resistant diseases
- Researchers are concerned that sick pets pass insects on to their healthy owners
- Drug-resistant infections kill more than 1.2 million people worldwide every year
Cats and dogs harbor potentially deadly antibiotic-resistant superbugs that they can pass on to their owners, a study suggests.
Researchers warn that the bacteria can spread between pets and healthy people by petting, touching or kissing and by handling feces.
Owners should wash their hands after touching their pet or picking up their waste and isolate sick animals to a single room, they added.
Scientists from the University of Lisbon issued the warning after analyzing fecal and urine samples and skin swabs from cats, dogs and their owners in Britain and Portugal.
Many were found to be infected with matching strains of bacteria, raising concerns that pets could act as ‘reservoirs of resistance’.
A study has found evidence that multi-drug resistant bacteria are being transmitted between sick cats and dogs and their healthy owners in Portugal and Britain
The World Health Organization considers antibiotic resistance to be one of the greatest public health threats facing humanity.
Drug-resistant infections already kill more than 1.2 million people worldwide every year, and this figure is expected to rise to 10 million by 2050 if no action is taken.
Researchers looked for Enterobacterales – a large family of bacteria that includes E. coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae – that are resistant to common antibiotics.
Their research, which will be presented later this month at the ESCMID Global Congress in Barcelona, Spain, involved five cats, 38 dogs and 78 people from 43 households in Portugal and 22 dogs and 56 people from 22 households in Britain concerned.
All pets had skin and soft tissue infections (SSTI) or urinary tract infections (UTI) and all humans were healthy.
Antibiotic resistance is reaching dangerously high levels worldwide. Drug-resistant infections kill more than 1.2 million people worldwide every year
In five Portuguese households, one with a cat and four with dogs, both the pet and the owner carried the same strains of Enterobacterales, indicating that there had been transmission between pet and owner.
In one of these five households, a dog and its owner also had the same strain of antibiotic-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae.
In two British households, both the dog and the owner carried the same Enterobacterales.
Many more pets became infected while their owners were not.
In cases of co-infection it was not possible to prove the direction of transmission. However, in three of the houses in Portugal, the timing of the positive tests for Enterobacterales strongly suggests that, at least in these cases, the bacteria were contaminated. passed from pet to human.
Lead researcher Juliana Menezes said: ‘Recent research indicates that the transmission of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) bacteria between humans and animals, including pets, is crucial for maintaining resistance levels, challenging the traditional belief that humans are the main carriers of AMR bacteria in the world. community.
‘Understanding and tackling the transmission of AMR bacteria from pets to humans is essential for effectively combating antimicrobial resistance in both humans and animals.
‘Our findings underline the importance of including households with pets in national programs that monitor levels of antibiotic resistance.
‘Learning more about resistance in pets would help develop informed and targeted interventions to protect the health of both animals and humans.’
She added: ‘If your pet is not feeling well, consider isolating them in one room to prevent the spread of bacteria throughout the house and thoroughly cleaning the other rooms.’