Antimicrobial Resistance and Molecular Epidemiology of Staphylococcus aureus from Hunters and Hunting Dogs

This work was funded by the R&D Project CAREBIO2: Comparative assessment of antimicrobial resistance in environmental biofilms through proteomics—towards innovative theranostic biomarkers, with reference NORTE‐01‐0145‐FEDER‐030101 and PTDC/SAU‐INF/30101/2017, financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the Northern Regional Operational Program (NORTE 2020) and the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT). This work was supported by the projects UIDB/CVT/00772/2020 and LA/P/0059/2020 funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT). Publisher Copyright: © 2022 by the authors.Several studies have showed that a dog‐to‐human transmission of Staphylococcus aureus occurs. Hunting dogs do not have as much contact with their owners as dogs that live in the same household as the owners; however, these dogs have contact with their owners during hunting activities as well as when hunting game; therefore, we aimed to isolate S. aureus from hunters and their hunting dogs to investigate a possible S. aureus transmission. Nose and mouth samples were collected from 30 hunters and their 78 hunting dogs for staphylococcal isolation. The species identification was performed using MALDI‐TOF. The antimicrobial susceptibility profiles were accessed using the Kirby–Bauer method and respective antimicrobial resistance genes were investigated by PCR. Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) and spa‐ and agr‐typing was performed in all S. aureus isolates. S. aureus were detected in 10 (30%) human samples and in 11 (15.4%) dog samples of which 11 and 5 were methicillin‐resistant S. aureus (MRSA). Other staphylococci were identified, particularly, S. pseudintermedius. Most S. aureus isolates were resistant to penicillin, erythromycin, and tetracycline. Evidence of a possible transmission of S. aureus between human and dogs was detected in three hunters and their dogs. S. aureus isolates were ascribed to 10 STs and 9 spa‐types. A moderate colonization of S. aureus in hunting dogs and their owners was detected in this study. A few dog‐to‐dog and dog‐to‐human possible transmissions were identified.publishersversionpublishe