Antimicrobial Resistance of Staphylococcus and Enterococcus Bacteria in Rural Dogs in Hungary – a Preliminary Report

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the most relevant health challenges globally. Since resistant bacteria and their resistance genes circulate through the ecosystem, AMR is among the main focuses of One Health. Dogs are the best friends of humans, therefore their relationships with the owners are mostly very close. This connection can make the dogs vehicles of AMR between the environment and humans. Based on this hypothesis, we investigated faecal samples from 37 dogs in Inner Somogy, Hungary. We isolated and investigated for antibiotic susceptibility 21 and 6 strains of Staphylococcus and Enterococcus genera, respectively. Among staphylococci and enterococci, 12 and 3 strains proved to be resistant to at least one antibiotic. Multidrug resistant strains were detected only among coagulase negative staphylococci, mainly in S. sciuri species. The antibiotics that proved to be inefficient against the most strains were benzylpenicillin (8 strains), moxifloxacin (6 strains), clindamycin (5 S. sciuri strains), and fusidic acid (12 strains). In the case of moxifloxacin and fusidic acid, the MIC excessed the EUCAST clinical breakpoint. Analysing the epidemiological background of the animals, outdoors keeping and higher income level of the owners seemed risk factors of AMR carrying, though the sample size of this study could not confirm statistically the apparent interdependence.