Cats and dogs could be passing antibiotic-resistant bacteria and resistance genes to their owners, according to study findings that will be presented this month at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.
“The idea for this work came from my supervisor, professor Constança Pomba, DVM, MSc, PhD, who was leading an international research project, the Pet-Risk consortium, where we collected samples from companion animals ⎼⎼ namely dogs and cats ⎼⎼ and their owners in Portugal and in the United Kingdom to search for the possible sharing of bacteria