Leading scientists have issued a warning to dog owners against letting their beloved pets lick their face. Experts say it could lead to superbugs being spread, which are resistant to antibiotics.
Owners are also being urged to avoid letting dogs eat off their plate, and are being told to wash their hands after stroking their pets or picking up their waste. It follows research carried out by the Royal Veterinary College and the University of Lisbon, Wales Online reports.
Researchers took regular stool samples from people, dogs and cats and found a number of both pets and humans were carrying ‘bacteria of concern’. That included bacteria which had developed resistance to antibiotics, The Telegraph reported.
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The findings, presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in Lisbon, showed pets and owners share bacteria with one another. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria killed a million people in 2019, and there is now growing concern that pets may be helping spread the bugs.
Dr Juliana Menezes, the study’s lead author, said: “Although the level of sharing from the households we have studied is low, healthy carriers can shed bacteria into their environment for months, and they can be a source of infection for other more vulnerable people and animals such as the elderly and pregnant women. Previous studies have linked the close contact factors between pets and their owners to the sharing of bacteria (whether resistant or not).
“These risk factors include kissing, licking the owner’s face or eating from the owner’s plate. To reduce the spread of these bacteria within the household, it would be necessary to reduce this close relationship between the owners and their pets, and also to have greater hygiene practices.
“Bearing in mind that the bacteria we studied are found colonising the gastrointestinal tract, the transmission occurs via the faecal-oral route, so good hygiene practices on the part of owners would help to reduce sharing, such as washing hands after collecting dog waste, or even after petting them.”
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