Antimicrobial Resistance Profiles of and Isolated from Healthy Dogs and Cats in South Korea.

spp. are typically found in the gastrointestinal tracts of humans and animals. However, they have the potential to produce opportunistic infections that can be transmitted to humans or other animals, along with acquired antibiotic resistance. In this study, we aimed to investigate the antimicrobial resistance profiles of and isolates obtained from companion animal dogs and cats in Korea during 2020-2022. The resistance rates in towards most of the tested antimicrobials were relatively higher than those in isolated from dogs and cats. We found relatively higher resistance rates to tetracycline (65.2% vs. 75.2%) and erythromycin (39.5% vs. 49.6%) in isolated from cats compared to those from dogs. However, in , the resistance rates towards tetracycline (35.6% vs. 31.5%) and erythromycin (40.3% vs. 35.2%) were comparatively higher for dog isolates than cats. No or very few and isolates were found to be resistant to daptomycin, florfenicol, tigecycline, and quinupristin/dalfopristin. Multidrug resistance (MDR) was higher in recovered from cats (44%) and dogs (33.9%) than in isolated from cats (24.1%) and dogs (20.5%). Moreover, MDR patterns in isolates from dogs (27.2%) and cats (35.2%) were shown to encompass five or more antimicrobials. However, isolates from dogs (at 13.4%) and cats (at 14.8%) were resistant to five or more antimicrobials. Taken together, the prevalence of antimicrobial-resistant enterococci in companion animals presents a potential public health concern.