LA-MRSA in small animals

Small animals: In addition to the spread of MRSA in the livestock sector, there has been an increase in MRSA infections in pets in recent years. Almost all common pets are associated with MRSA. Both in dogs (Loeffler et al. 2010) and cats (Loeffler et al. 2010), MRSA has been isolated several times in various studies in recent years.

However, small pets such as hamsters are also affected by the MRSA problem (Ferreira et al. 2011). Usually, skin/soft tissue infections and surgical complications, as well as clinical infections associated with the problem germ MRSA are reported in pets.

The extent to which the reservoir for the colonization of pets with MRSA generally lies with the pets or with the owners is controversially discussed. Overall, both human-to-pet and animal-to-human spread of MRSA can be observed or is suspected (Loeffler et al. 2010).

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