Faecal carriage, risk factors, acquisition and persistence of ESBL-producing Enterobacteriaceae in dogs and cats and co-carriage with humans belonging to the same household

BACKGROUND: ESBL-producing Enterobacteriaceae (ESBL-E) are observed in many reservoirs. Pets might play an important role in the dissemination of ESBL-E to humans since they live closely together.

OBJECTIVES: To identify prevalence, risk factors, molecular characteristics, persistence and acquisition of ESBL-E in dogs and cats, and co-carriage in human-pet pairs belonging to the same household.

METHODS: In a nationwide study, one person per household was randomly invited to complete a questionnaire and to submit a faecal sample. Dog and cat owners were invited to also submit a faecal sample from their pet. Repeated sampling after 1 and 6 months was performed in a subset. ESBL-E were obtained through selective culture and characterized by WGS. Logistic regression analyses and random forest models were performed to identify risk factors.

RESULTS: The prevalence of ESBL-E carriage in these cohorts was 3.8% (95% CI: 2.7%-5.4%) for human participants (n = 550), 10.7% (95% CI: 8.3%-13.7%) for dogs (n = 555) and 1.4% (95% CI: 0.5%-3.8%) for cats (n = 285). Among animals, blaCTX-M-1 was most abundant, followed by blaCTX-M-15. In dogs, persistence of carriage was 57.1% at 1 month and 42.9% at 6 months. Eating raw meat [OR: 8.8, 95% CI: 4.7-16.4; population attributable risk (PAR): 46.5%, 95% CI: 41.3%-49.3%] and dry food (OR: 0.2, 95% CI: 0.1-0.5; PAR: 56.5%, 95% CI: 33.2%-66.6%) were predictors for ESBL-E carriage in dogs. Human-dog co-carriage was demonstrated in five households. Human-cat co-carriage was not observed.

CONCLUSIONS: ESBL-E prevalence was higher in dogs than in humans and lowest in cats. The main risk factor for ESBL-E carriage was eating raw meat. Co-carriage in dogs and household members was uncommon.