The practice of feeding raw meat-based diets to dogs has grown in popularity worldwide in recent years. However, there are public health risks in handling and feeding raw meat-based dog diets (RMDDs) to dogs since there are no pathogen reduction steps to reduce the microbial load, which may include antimicrobial-resistant pathogenic bacteria. A total of 100 RMDDs from 63 suppliers were sampled, and selective media were used to isolate bacteria from the diets. Bacterial identification, antimicrobial susceptibility testing, and whole-genome sequencing (WGS) were conducted to identify antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The primary meat sources for RMDDs included in this study were poultry (37%) and beef (24%). Frozen-dry was the main method of product production (68%). In total, 52 true and opportunistic pathogens, including Enterobacterales (mainly Escherichia coli, Enterobacter cloacae) and Enterococcus faecium, were obtained from 30 RMDDs. Resistance was identified to 19 of 28 antimicrobials tested, including amoxicillin/clavulanic acid (23/52, 44%), ampicillin (19/52, 37%), cephalexin (16/52, 31%), tetracycline (7/52, 13%), marbofloxacin (7/52, 13%), and cefazolin (6/52, 12%). All 19 bacterial isolates submitted for WGS harbored at least one type of AMR gene. The identified AMR genes were found to mediate resistance to aminoglycoside (gentamicin, streptomycin, amikacin/kanamycin, gentamicin/kanamycin/tobramycin), macrolide, beta-lactam (carbapenem, cephalosporin), tetracycline, fosfomycin, quinolone, phenicol/quinolone, and sulfonamide. In conclusion, the results of this study suggest that feeding and handling RMDDs may pose a significant public health risk due to the presence of antimicrobial-resistant pathogens, and further research and intervention may be necessary to minimize these risks.
Keywords: AMR genes; Enterobacter cloacae; Enterococcus faecium; Escherichia coli; Salmonella Kentucky; antimicrobial-resistant bacteria; raw meat-based dog diets.