Antibiotic Resistance Profiles of Staphylococcus pseudintermedius Isolates from Canine Patients in Korea

In this study, the prevalence of antibiotic resistance was examined among 74 Staphylococcus pseudintermedius strains recently isolated from clinical cases of canine pyoderma and otitis externa at the veterinary teaching hospital at Konkuk University, Korea. Bacterial resistance to the nine commonly used antibiotics was evaluated by a standard disk diffusion technique based on the guidelines of the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute. The results demonstrated that most S. pseudintermedius isolates were resistant to penicillin (95.9%) or tetracycline (91.9%), but highly susceptible to amoxicillin/clavulanic acid (90.5%). Among the 74 isolates, 13 mecA-positive and methicillin-resistant S. pseudintermedius (MRSP) strains were identified, displaying a high level of resistance (84.6-100%) to each of the individual antibiotics evaluated, with the exception of amoxicillin/clavulanic acid (46.2% resistance). Notably, all of the MRSP isolates exhibited simultaneous resistance to four or more different antibiotics, indicating that they are multiple drug resistant (MDR) strains. Taken together, these results imply that more careful selection or prescription of antibiotics for canine pyoderma and otitis externa should be required for reducing the emergence and/or spread of MDR strains, especially MDR-MRSP isolates, in veterinary pet clinics in Korea.