Key words: Leptospirosis; Zoonosis; Egypt

Nowadays, pet animals are known to be asymptomatic carriers of Clostridioidesdifficile. This study was conducted to investigate the burden of toxigenic C. difficile among diarrheic dogs and cats using direct PCR on fecal samples to reveal better insights about the epidemiology of such toxigenic strains referring to its public health significance. For this purpose, fecal samples were obtained from 58 dogs and 42 cats experiencing diarrhea. Following DNA extraction, the extracted DNA was examined for the occurrence of C. difficile as well as toxigenic strains through the detection of C. difficile 16S rRNA and toxin encoding genes (tcdA, tcdB, cdtA and cdtB) using PCR. Moreover, partial DNA sequencing of toxigenic strains retrieved from dog and cat was carried out. Of 100 examined diarrheic animals, 90 (90%) were C. difficile positive, including 93.1% and 85.7% of dogs and cats, respectively. In addition, toxigenic strains were detected in 13 animals, giving an overall prevalence 13% with the following prevalence rates among dogs and cats 12.1% and 14.3%, respectively. Furthermore, the phylogenetic analysis of the obtained sequence revealed high genetic relatedness of tcdA sequence obtained from a cat to strains of human diarrheic cases to point out the public health threat of such sequence. In conclusion, the direct detection of toxigenic C. difficile using PCR among dogs and cats highlights the potential role of household pets as a source for such strains to human contacts.

Nowadays, research attention is paid to the investigation of bacterial pathogens in the cloaca of parrots rather than the nasal niche, which is largely ignored. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the nasal carriage of multidrug-resistant bacteria with zoonotic potential in parrots suffering from respiratory illness. Nasal swabs were collected from 75 sick parrots with respiratory illness, and they were subjected to microbiological isolation and identification, followed by antimicrobial susceptibility testing. Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Proteus mirabilis, and Staphylococcus aureus were isolated with a prevalence rate of 36%, 32%, 26.7%, and 9.3%, respectively, while one isolate (1.3%) of Staphylococcus pseudointermedius, Staphylococcus simulans, Staphylococcus sciuri, and Enterococcus faecalis was identified. E. coli, K. pneumoniae, and P. mirabilis were investigated for ESBL genes, Staphylococcus species for the mecA gene, followed by SCCmec typing, and E. faecalis for the vanA and vanB genes. Regarding beta-lactamase-encoding genes, bla _TEM (97.6%), bla _SHV (48.8%), and bla _CTX−M (39%) gene families were detected, while bla _OXA was not found. Sequencing of bla _CTX−M in one strain of E. coli, K. pneumoniae, and P. mirabilis revealed bla _CTX−M−15. The mecA was determined in three S. aureus and one S. sciuri strain, and the SCCmec typing of three MRSA isolates yielded type V, whereas type I in S. sciuri. Only the vanA gene was recognized in the E. faecalis strain. Moreover, 67.1% of bacterial isolates exhibited multidrug resistance. These findings highlight the potential role of parrots in the transmission of multidrug-resistant zoonotic bacteria, which may pose a threat to human contacts.