Pets may cause multi-resistant infections

Aug. 6 (UPI) -- A U.S. study suggests family pets might be reservoirs for multiple antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

One particular type of potentially fatal bacterium -- Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA -- is the focus of on-going research led by University of Missouri-Columbia veterinarians Stephanie Kottler, Leah Cohn and John Middleton.

U.S. Centers for Disease Control statistics show in 1974 MRSA infections accounted for 2 percent of the total number of staphylococcal infections; in 2004 it was 63 percent. Kottler says she and her colleagues believe pets might be an important factor behind an increase in community-acquired infections.

The researchers -- aided by Assistant Professor J. Scott Weese of the University of Guelph Ontario Veterinary College in Canada -- have collected about 500 bacterial samples from about 800 pairs of owners and pets, sorting them into three groups: human healthcare workers and pets, veterinary healthcare workers and pets, and non-healthcare professionals and pets.

“Are pets a risk factor?” asked Middleton, an associate professor of food animal internal medicine. “This study will help us track where the disease started and determine what questions the physician should be asking if a patient is diagnosed with MRSA.”