Human and Companion Animal Proteus mirabilis Sharing

Cátia Marques,Luís T Gama,Joana Moreira Da Silva,Patrícia Cavaco-Silva,Adriana Belas,Juliana Menezes,Constança Pomba,Graça Trigueiro

doi:10.3390/microbiolres13010003

Abstract

Proteus mirabilis is an important pathogen that is associated with urinary tract infections. This study aims to determine the colonization and sharing of P. mirabilis between healthy companion animals and humans that are living together and to evaluate the clonal relatedness of the fecal and clinical stains. Eighteen households (24 humans, 18 dogs, 8 cats) with at least one human–animal pair were studied. Fecal samples were plated onto MacConkey and Hektoen agar and P. mirabilis PFGE analysis (NotI; Dice/UPGMA; 1.5% tolerance) was conducted for the households with multiple positive participants. Antimicrobial-resistance was tested according to CLSI. The fecal P. mirabilis pulse-types were compared with uropathogenic clinical strains (n = 183). Forty-nine P. mirabilis were isolated from eight households. The percentage of colonization in the dogs (44.4%, n = 8/18) was significantly higher (p = 0.0329) than in the humans (12.5%, n = 3/24). Three households had multiple colonized participants. One human–dog pair shared related P. mirabilis strains, which clustered with a clinical strain of animal origin (82.5%). One fecal P. mirabilis strain, from a dog, clustered with two human community-acquired clinical strains (80.9%, 88.9%). To our knowledge, this is the first report of dogs and humans living in close contact and sharing related P. mirabilis strains. The high frequency of colonization in the dogs underlines their possible role as P. mirabilis reservoirs for humans and other dogs.

Highlights

Academic Editors: Patricia Poeta, Carla Miranda, Vanessa Silva and Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Animal Health (CIISA), Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Lusófona University, 1749-024 Lisbon, Portugal
When considering each participant species by itself, the P. mirabilis fecal colonization was significantly higher (p = 0.0329) in dogs (44.4%, n = 8/18) than in humans (12.5%, n = 3/24)
In 2007. to Neither human nor this is the first study that focuses on humans and companion animals that are living in dog H18A1 had a previous history of urinary tract infections (UTI)

Summary

Introduction

Academic Editors: Patricia Poeta, Carla Miranda, Vanessa Silva and Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Animal Health (CIISA), Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Lusófona University, 1749-024 Lisbon, Portugal. This study aims to determine the colonization and sharing of P. mirabilis between healthy companion animals and humans that are living together and to evaluate the clonal relatedness of the fecal and clinical stains. One human–dog pair shared related P. mirabilis strains, which clustered with a clinical strain of animal origin (82.5%). One fecal P. mirabilis strain, from a dog, clustered with two human community-acquired clinical strains (80.9%, 88.9%). To our knowledge, this is the first report of dogs and humans living in close contact and sharing related P. mirabilis strains. P. mirabilis is relevant in companion animals with UTI since it is the second most common Gram-negative bacteria that is isolated from dogs and cats [3]

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