Extract

Sir,

Staphylococcus pseudintermedius is the most frequent causative agent of canine pyoderma and may also be associated with wound infections, urinary tract infections and otitis externa in dogs.1 Although more rarely, S. pseudintermedius causes infections in cats and has also been identified in infections of humans.1–3 The latter observation highlights the zoonotic potential of S. pseudintermedius. S. pseudintermedius appears to be able to readily accumulate antimicrobial resistance genes1,4 and, in recent years, a rapid increase in methicillin resistance has been observed.5,6 A recent multicentre study on methicillin-resistant S. pseudintermedius (MRSP) of canine origin, obtained in different European countries as well as in the USA and Canada, revealed that most of the canine strains exhibited resistance to virtually all classes of antimicrobial agents approved for veterinary use.4 This represents a major therapeutic challenge for veterinarians in Europe and North America. Moreover, this multicentre study revealed that among MRSP from dogs two distinct, dominant clones—as identified by multilocus sequence typing (MLST), spa typing, SCCmec typing and SmaI PFGE—have disseminated across Europe and North America.4 In contrast to the wealth of data available for MRSP isolates of canine origin, little data are available about MRSP from cats.

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