Drug-resistant superbugs are spreading among Hong Kong pets and could infect - and kill - people, say vets and an infectious disease expert. They suspect widespread abuse of antibiotics by pet shops is partly to blame for the situation, which one shocked vet said he had never encountered before. Doctors say potentially deadly bacteria could be passed to humans, along with their resistance to antibiotics. 'It means that the choice of antibiotics effective on humans will be further constrained,' Chinese University microbiologist Paul Chan Kay-sheung said. Superbugs in hospitals and the community at large are a growing concern in many countries. The most common one, MRSA, infects 2,000 Hong Kong hospital patients a year, of whom 60 die, experts have said. Professor Chan said the abuse of antibiotics on farms had long been a global concern. But the danger was even greater when it involved small animals and pets in direct, daily contact with their owners. Bacteria can develop resistance when antibiotics are overused or when a course of treatment is not completed. Vet Stephan Lehner was shocked to find that two sick puppies admitted to his clinic last month with pneumonia had very strong resistance to the antibiotics commonly used to treat the disease. 'They seemed to be resistant to nearly everything. We've never seen this situation before,' said Dr Lehner, who works at Chris & Nicola's Animal Hospital in Tin Hau. Of 30 antibiotics available, only one, amoksiklav, would still work on the two dogs. One, an 11-week-old male Yorkshire terrier, had to be put down because it did not respond sufficiently to treatment; the other, a 14-week-old dachshund, is still in isolation at the clinic. Paul Essey, of the Wanchai Animal Clinic, said his clinic saw three to five cases of multiple drug resistance every week. 'Most of them are dogs, and there are also cats and rabbits with this problem,' he said. The superbugs are bacteria including E.coli, salmonella and bartonella. Professor Chan said people could be infected with such bacteria from eating farmed meat which had not been cooked properly, but the diseases they cause would be more easily caught from live animals. 'The channel of infection can be through simple, direct contact like your pets sneezing or scratching your skin,' he said. Drug abuse The superbugs: bacteria - salmonella, E. coli, and bartonella, which causes cat scratch disease (CSD) How we catch them: if an animal bites, licks or scratches us, or sneezes. E. coli can be caught from faeces The effects on humans: CSD causes fever, lymph node pain and swelling; salmonella can cause gastroenteritis and septic shock, both of which may be fatal; E. coli causes diarrhoea and, occasionally, kidney failure Sources: Medline Plus, MSN, NHS
