Companion animals harbour globally circulating human-associated Klebsiella pneumoniae lineages and high-risk antimicrobial resistance clones
File(s)
Published version (early view)
Author(s)
Fordham, Stephen Mark Edward
Sheridan, Elizabeth
Drobniewski, Francis
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Companion animals are increasingly recognised within One Health antimicrobial-resistance (AMR) surveillance, yet the global genomic structure of dog- and cat-associated Klebsiella pneumoniae remains poorly defined. We assembled a global dataset of 712 domestic dog (Canis lupus familiaris)– and cat (Felis catus)–derived K. pneumoniae genomes to define lineage diversity, AMR burden, host-associated patterns, and overlap with human-associated populations. Companion-animal isolates comprised 263 sequence types (STs), but recurrent high-risk lineages, including ST307, ST11, ST15, and ST147, were prominent. Among 706 isolates from 25 countries, extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) and carbapenemase genes were widely distributed, detected in 303 (42.9%) and 98 (13.9%) isolates, respectively. Cat-derived isolates showed higher multidrug-resistance (MDR) prevalence than dog-derived isolates; 80.0% versus 56.3%, partly reflecting enrichment of epidemic clones, especially ST147. MDR was not confined to infection-associated samples, indicating that colonisation may represent an important reservoir state. Comparison with 38,106 human-associated K. pneumoniae isolates revealed extensive ST overlap, with 71.1% of companion-animal STs and 87.2% of companion-animal isolates belonging to STs also detected in humans. Focused recombination-filtered phylogenomics of ST147 identified a closely related MDR cluster containing cat-, dog- and human-associated genomes, consistent with recent common ancestry and cross-host cocirculation. Together, these findings reveal domestic dogs and cats harbour globally distributed K. pneumoniae lineages and high-risk AMR clones also represented in human-associated populations.
Editor(s)
Zhang, Wanjiang
Date Issued
2026-08-28
Date Acceptance
2026-08-12
Citation
Transboundary and Emerging Diseases, 2026
ISSN
1865-1674
Publisher
Wiley
Journal / Book Title
Transboundary and Emerging Diseases
Copyright Statement
Copyright © 2026 Stephen Mark Edward Fordham et al. Transboundary and Emerging Diseases published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
License URL
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/42663067
Subjects
Klebsiella pneumoniae
One Health
companion animals
genomic surveillance
multidrug resistance
Animals
Klebsiella pneumoniae
Dogs
Humans
Cats
Klebsiella Infections
Dog Diseases
Cat Diseases
Anti-Bacterial Agents
Drug Resistance, Bacterial
Pets
Drug Resistance, Multiple, Bacterial
Publication Status
Published online
Coverage Spatial
Germany
Article Number
5383720
Date Publish Online
2026-08-28