A shared population of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteria circulates both in humans and companion animals, according to a study published this week in mBio®, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology.
“Our study demonstrates that humans and companion animals readily exchange and share MRSA bacteria from the same population,” says senior author Mark Holmes, senior lecturer in preventive veterinary medicine at the University of Cambridge in England. MRSA naturally lives on the skin and also causes difficult-to-treat infections in humans and animals. “It also furthers the ‘one health’ view of infectious diseases that the pathogens infecting both humans and animals are intrinsically linked, and provides evidence that antibiotic usage in animal medicine is shaping the population of a major human pathogen.”
Holmes and colleagues sequenced the genomes of 46 MRSA samples from cats and dogs, collected between August 2003 and August 2007 from two large veterinary hospitals and several smaller veterinary practices throughout the United Kingdom. The samples were found to be similar to those associated with MRSA strains in humans, with most coming from wound infections or skin and soft tissue infections. Additional samples were from the animals’ urine; cerebrospinal fluid; nasal wash or discharge; and bloodstream, heart valve or joint infections.
Link: Humans and Companion Animals Harbor the Same Types of MRSA Infections