One health approach to genetic relatedness in SCCmec between methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus isolates from companion dogs with pyoderma and their owners

Abstract

Staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec) confers methicillin resistance and shows ability for horizontal transfer. However, little is known about the potential transfer of SCCmec between different species of staphylococci in a clinical setting. In this study, we investigated the genetic relationship of SCCmec between staphylococci isolated from dogs affected with pyoderma and their owners. Clinical isolates were collected from pyoderma lesions of dogs and from the nasal cavity and finger of owners. Clonal lineages were characterized using multi-locus sequence typing. Genetic relatedness of SCCmec in the isolates from dogs and owners was first evaluated with dru and SCCmec typing, and whole-genome sequencing (WGS) was used to confirm the similarity of DNA sequences and the structural composition of SCCmec. A total of 100 Staphylococcus strains were isolated from 31 dog-owner pairs. One pair with isolates carrying the same SCCmec type V and dru type 11a was detected: 18D20-1 (S. pseudintermedius, dog), 18D20-2 (S. schleiferi, dog), and 18H20-F2 (S. epidermidis, dog owner). WGS revealed that these three isolates showed remarkable genetic similarity in SCCmec with respect to DNA sequences, dru type, structure composition of ccrC and the mec complex, and DR-1 in orfX, which is considered to be the insertion site of SCCmec. Entire identical nucleotide sequences of the whole SCCmec region in different Staphylococcus strains were absent between dogs and owners. However, the remarkable genetic similarity of SCCmec from staphylococci isolated from a dog and owner pair emphasizes that antimicrobial resistance surveillance adopted One Health concept should be continuously performed.