Dogs and Cats: Vectors for Asthma-Exacerbating Bacteria in Children?

Dogs and cats may be a source of respiratory pathogens that can exacerbate asthma in children who live with them, according to findings presented at IDWeek 2018 in San Francisco, California.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, Maryland, investigated whether mammalian pets could harbor respiratory disease-exacerbating pathogens in inner-city children with asthma. The research was part of a larger study evaluating the transmission of microbial pathogens from animals to children.

The investigators evaluated 95 children with asthma at a baseline clinic visit and 60 mammalian pets (primarily dogs and cats) at a home visit. Most of the children were African American, and their age ranged from 5 to 17 years. Nasal and pharyngeal samples from the children and samples from the nose, mouth, and/or perineum of the companion animals were cultured for respiratory pathogens.

Culture results in the children were positive for Staphylococcus aureus (36.8%), Moraxella catarrhalis (8.4%), group A strep (7.4%) and Streptococcus pneumoniae (1%). In the dogs and cats, culture results were positive for M catarrhalis (11.7%; 1 dog and 6 cats, with 5 of the cats in the same household) and S pneumoniae (1.7%; 1 dog). In the home of the dog carrying M catarrhalis (cultured from the animal’s perineum), the child also carried the pathogen (cultured from the nares). Children with dogs had 8-fold higher odds of carrying M catarrhalis.

“Prior studies of S aureus suggest companion animals may serve as mechanical vehicles (fur contamination) or biological reservoirs (true colonization) for bacterial respiratory pathogens; more work is needed to establish whether this is true for M catarrhalis,” the authors concluded.

—Michael Gerchufsky

Reference:

Davis MF, Dalton K, Johnson Z, et al. Household pets and recovery of Moraxella catarrhalis and other respiratory pathogens from children with asthma. Poster presented at: IDWeek 2018; October 6, 2018; San Francisco, CA. Poster abstract 2331. https://idsa.confex.com/idsa/2018/webprogram/Paper71914.html. Accessed October 16, 2018.