Antimicrobial resistance patterns of Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolated from canine clinical cases at a veterinary academic hospital in South Africa

Although Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) can infect both animals and humans, there is a paucity of veterinary studies on antimicrobial resistance of P. aeruginosa in South Africa. Secondary data of canine clinical cases presented at the hospital from January 2007 to December 2013 was used. The following information was recorded: type of sample, the date of sampling and the antimicrobial susceptibility results. Frequencies, proportions and their 95% confidence intervals were calculated for all the categorical variables. In total, 155 P. aeruginosa isolates were identified and included in this study. All the isolates were resistant to at least one antimicrobial (AMR), while 92% were multi-drug resistant (MDR). Most isolates were resistant to lincomycin (98%), penicillin-G (96%), orbifloxacin (90%), trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (90%) and doxycycline (87%). A low proportion of isolates was resistant to imipenem (6%), tobramycin (12%), amikacin (16%) and gentamicin (18%). A high proportion of MDR-P. aeruginosa isolates was resistant to amoxycillin-clavulanic acid (99%), tylosin (99%), chloramphenicol (97%) and doxycycline (96%). Few (6%) of MDR-P. aeruginosa isolates were resistant to imipenem. Pseudomonas aeruginosa was associated with infections of various organ systems in this study. All P. aeruginosa isolates of P. aeruginosa exhibited resistance to β-lactams, fluoroquinolones and lincosamides. Clinicians at the hospital in question should consider these findings when treating infections associated with P. aeruginosa.