Determination of ampicillin resistant enterococci (ARE) isolated from canine and feline rectal swabs

Enterococci species, which are normal inhabitants of the gut flora of healthy animals and human, began to be recognized as an important pathogen in both human and veterinary medicine due to the acquired resistance profiles. The aim of the study is to examine the diversity of ampicillin resistance enterococci (ARE) species in cats and dogs, their antimicrobial susceptibility profiles and to determine some of the virulence related genes; ace, gelE, efaA, agg and esp. For this purpose, rectal swabs from companion animals were collected and processed for ampicillin resistant enterococci isolation. One hundred fifty seven swab samples (86 canine and 71 feline) were examined. ARE were isolated from 18 canine and 18 feline samples. All isolates identified as E. faecium by PCR. Antimicrobial susceptibilities of the isolates were determined by disk diffusion method. The isolates were resistant to ampicillin, penicillin, tetracycline (100%), followed by rifampicin and erythromycin (97%), streptomycin (92%), gentamicin (81%), ciprofloxacin (61%), nitrofurantoin (19%). Only two of E. faecium isolates were resistant to vancomycin and one to chloramphenicol. Multidrug resistance (resistance ≥4 antimicrobials) observed in all isolates. Virulence genes ace, agg and esp were not detected in any of the tested isolates. The efaA and gelE genes detection rates were, 13.8% and 11.1% respectively. The ARE isolation rate among pet animals was 22.9%. Screening of antimicrobial resistant enterococci among companion animals would be useful to detect any emerging antimicrobial resistance problem related with public health.