Pandemic one health clones of and producing CTX-M-14, CTX-M-27, CTX-M-55 and CTX-M-65 ESβLs among companion animals in northern Ecuador.

From a One Health perspective, dogs and cats have begun to be recognized as important reservoirs for clinically significant multidrug-resistant bacterial pathogens. In this study, we investigated the occurrence and genomic features of ESβL producing Enterobacterales isolated from dogs, in the province of Imbabura, Ecuador. We identified four isolates expressing ESβLs from healthy and diseased animals. In this regard, two strains producing CTX-M-55-like or CTX-M-65 ESβLs belonged to the international ST10 and ST162, whereas two producing CTX-M-14 or CTX-M-27 belonged to ST35 and ST661. Phylogenomic analysis clustered (95-105 SNP differences) CTX-M-55/ST10 from companion animal with food and human strains of ST10 isolated in 2016, in Australia and Cambodia, respectively; whereas CTX-M-27-positive ST661 was clustered (201-216 SNP differences) with human strains identified in Italy, in 2013 and 2017, respectively. In summary, we report the presence and genomic data of global human-associated clones of CTX-M-producing and in dogs, in Ecuador. The implementation of a national epidemiological surveillance program is necessary to establish future strategies to control the dissemination of antibiotic-resistant priority pathogens using a One Health approach.