Macrolide-resistant Streptococcus pyogenes is an emerging problem with a great public health concern throughout the world. The current study was carried out in order to investigate the possible role of pet animals in the epidemiology of such pathogen. For this purpose, nasal or oral swabs were collected from 115 pets (40 dogs and 75 cats) with respiratory illness. The collected swabs were cultured for isolation and identification of S. pyogenes. Macrolide-resistant S. pyogenes strains were initially identified after antibiotic susceptibility testing of the all obtained S. pyogenes isolates, then the phenotypic and molecular identification were done using the double-disk test and the detection of macrolide resistance genes, respectively. Of the 115 examined pet animals, S. pyogenes was recovered from 11 (9.6 %), from which, the isolation rates among dogs and cats were 15 % and 6.7 %, respectively. Macrolide-resistant S. pyogenes was isolated from dogs and cats in the following rates 10 % and 5.3 %, respectively. All macrolide-resistant S. pyogenes strains were assigned to cMLS resistance phenotype while all of them carried ermB gene only, except one strain from a cat possessed both ermB and ermTR genes. The phylogenetic analysis of 4 ermB gene sequences showed high genetic relatedness with those carried by bacteria isolated from human cases to underline the public health impact of such strains. Seriously, all macrolide-resistant S. pyogenes strains were resistant to penicillin. The emergence of penicillin-macrolide resistant S. pyogenes among pet animals underscores not only an emerging veterinary pathogen, but also an ongoing public health threat.

中文翻译：

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宠物中青霉素抗大环内酯化脓性链球菌的出现：持续的公共卫生威胁。

耐大环内酯化脓性链球菌是一个新出现的问题，在世界范围内引起了极大的公共卫生关注。进行当前的研究是为了研究宠物在这种病原体的流行病学中的可能作用。为了这个目的，从115名患有呼吸道疾病的宠物（40只狗和75只猫）中收集了鼻或口腔拭子。培养收集的拭子以分离和鉴定化脓性链球菌。在对所有获得的化脓性链球菌分离株进行抗生素敏感性测试后，首先鉴定了对大环内酯类耐药的化脓性链球菌，然后分别通过双盘试验和大环内酯类抗性基因的检测进行了表型和分子鉴定。在检查的115只宠物中，化脓性链球菌从11种（9.6％）中恢复，狗和猫之间的隔离率分别为15％和6.7％。从狗和猫中分离出抗大环内酯化脓性链球菌，其发生率分别为10％和5.3％。所有对大环内酯类耐药的化脓性链球菌菌株均指定为cMLS耐药表型，而所有菌株均仅携带ermB基因，除了一只猫的菌株同时具有ermB和ermTR基因。对4个ermB基因序列的系统进化分析表明，它们与从人类病例中分离出的细菌携带的基因具有高度的遗传相关性，从而突显了此类菌株对公共健康的影响。严重地，所有抗大环内酯化脓性链球菌菌株均对青霉素具有抗性。宠物中对青霉素-大环内酯耐药的化脓性链球菌的出现不仅强调了正在出现的兽医病原体，而且也说明了持续的公共卫生威胁。