ANTIMICROBIAL SUSCEPTIBILITY OF SPP. ISOLATED FROM FELIDS AND CANIDS IN BELO HORIZONTE ZOO, BRAZIL.

The epidemiology of spp. has become a major concern among humans and animals due to increasing antimicrobial resistance and frequent reports of infection. Despite the importance of animals as reservoirs for staphylococci, little is known about the epidemiology of spp. in most nondomestic species, including canids and felids. This study evaluated the frequency, distribution, and patterns of antimicrobial resistance of staphylococcal species isolated from captive felids and canids from Belo Horizonte Zoo, Brazil. Rectal, oral, and nasal swabs from apparently healthy maned wolves (, = 7), a lion (, = 1), jaguars (, = 3), and one swab of a cougar () with an ear infection were streaked onto mannitol salt agar. Colonies identified by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry, polymerase chain reaction for the group (SIG), and gene sequencing. Isolates were subjected to antimicrobial susceptibility tests and strains were subjected to multilocus sequence typing. species were isolated from 24 of the 34 samples (70.6%). Among the isolated strains, and were the most frequent species (41.7 and 25%, respectively). Five novel sequence types were identified among the isolates. Resistance to tetracycline (7/24, 29.2%) or penicillin (6/23, 26.1%) was significantly higher than the other antimicrobial agents tested ( < 0.05). One isolate, , was positive for and resistant to five antimicrobials, and was thus classified as multidrug-resistant. The present work suggests that maned wolves are natural hosts of SIG and also reports the isolation of in sick and healthy, captive, nondomestic carnivores. The isolated staphylococci were susceptible to most classes of antimicrobials tested. However, the multidrug-resistance capability of an strain reinforces the hypothesis that felids and canids act as reservoirs of pathogens with antimicrobial resistance.