Resistance plasmids in ESBL-encoding Escherichia coli isolates from humans, dogs and cats.

We characterized ESBL-producing Escherichia coli isolates from diseased dog, cat and human sources for their plasmid content. Plasmids with different Inc groups and combinations of resistance genes were detected in these isolates. The pan-genome of the plasmid-associated genes was found to be large, indicating diversity of the gene pool among the plasmids. No commonly occurring plasmids with similar gene content in isolates from dog, cats and humans were detected.