The pet café is a neglected site for transmission of antimicrobial-resistant Escherichia coli in urban life

The process of urbanization has brought with it several novel lifestyles, but it remains to be seen whether such lifestyles are the potential driver behind the spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in modern society. Hence, this study employs the pet café as a proof of concept to observe how one pathway of AMR transmission occurs within a megacity. A total of 111 samples were collected from consumers, workers, animals and the surrounding environment from three pet cafés in Guangzhou, and 163 bacterial strains were isolated, with <i>Escherichia coli</i> (<i>n</i>=60) being the most dominant species. The sequence type and genomic diversity of <i>E. coli</i> were observed in all three cafés. Notably, 19 highly related ST328 strains were isolated in a single pet café from both workers (skin and faeces) and animals (faeces), suggesting transmission between distinct hosts. The number of SNPs between ST328 <i>E. coli</i> isolated in this study and strains from other provinces in China was minimal, with the possibility of clonal transmission. In terms of AMR, 90% of the isolates exhibited resistance to at least three distinct classes of antimicrobials (multidrug resistance). Multiple antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) such as <i>tet</i>(X4) were detected in this study, and plasmid, especially hybrid plasmid, is the main transmission vector of these ARGs. Our findings highlight that the pet café is a neglected site for the transfer of ARGs among <i>Enterobacteriaceae</i>, with a propensity for continuous contamination through either clonal or horizontal transmission of ARGs.