Detection and characterization of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus pseudintermedius in healthy dogs in La Rioja, Spain

The objective was to identify the methicillin-resistant coagulase-positive staphylococci (MRCoPS) nasal carriage rate of healthy dogs in La Rioja (Spain) and to characterize the recovered isolates by different molecular techniques. Nasal samples from 196 dogs were obtained (98 household-dogs, 98 pound-dogs). Isolates were identified and characterized by spa-, SCCmec- and MLST-typing, SmaI-PFGE, antimicrobial susceptibility, determination of antimicrobial resistance and toxin genes profiling. S. pseudintermedius was the only species recovered. Nine methicillin-resistant S. pseudintermedius (MRSP) were obtained from 9 of 196 sampled dogs (8% pound-dogs, 1% household-dogs). MRSP isolates were typed (MLST/PFGE/spa/SCCmec) as: ST71/A/t02/II–III (7 isolates), ST92/C/t06/V (1 isolate), and ST26/B/non-typable/non-typable (1 isolate). All MRSP were resistant to [resistance gene/number isolates]: β-lactams [mecA + blaZ/9], tetracycline [tet(K)/7, tet(M)/2], macrolides and lincosamides [erm(B)/9], aminoglycosides [aacA-aphD + aadE + aphA-3/9], and co-trimoxazol [dfr(G)/9]. Eight MRSP isolates showed also resistance to fluoroquinolones and amino acid changes in GyrA [Ser84Leu + Glu714Lys, 7 isolates; Ser84Leu, 1 isolate] and GrlA [Ser80Ile, 8 isolates] proteins were detected. The remaining isolate was chloramphenicol resistant and harboured catpC221 gene. All MRSP isolates harboured the aadE-sat4-aphA-3 multiresistance-gene-cluster linked to erm(B) gene as well as the siet, si-ent and lukS/F-I toxin genes. MRSP is a moderately common (4.6%) colonizer of healthy dogs in Spain. A major MRSP lineage (ST71) was detected and its future evolution should be tracked.