According to The Guardian, new research discovered that multidrug-resistant pathogens can be passed on to hospitalized owners from even healthy pets, and vice versa. The findings will be presented at the European Conference of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, which will be held in Copenhagen, Denmark. Dr. Carolin Hackmann and colleagues from Germany’s Charité University Hospital Berlin studied approximately 2,800 hospitalized patients and their companion animals.
The study sought to determine whether dogs are to blame for the infection of hospital patients with multidrug-resistant pathogens (MDROs). Bacteria that defy treatment with more than one antibiotic are known as MDROs. Multidrug-resistant organisms are mostly found in hospitals and nursing homes.
“Our findings verify that the sharing of multidrug-resistant organisms between companion animals and their owners is possible”
The researchers employed genetic sequencing to determine the bacterium species in each sample as well as the presence of drug-resistant genes. They discovered that 30% of hospital patients tested positive for MDROs. The report also stated that dog ownership was 11% and cat ownership was 9% among those who tested positive for MDRO.
As quoted by SciTechDaily, Dr. Hackmann said, “Our findings verify that the sharing of multidrug-resistant organisms between companion animals and their owners is possible”. “However, we identified only a handful of cases suggesting that neither cat nor dog ownership is an important risk factor for multidrug-resistant organism colonization in hospital patients,” said Dr. Hackmann.