Antibiotic Resistance: For the Sake of Your Health, Be Sure to Take Good Care of Your Pets, Too!

About half of all French people own a pet. Contact between humans and their pets is often close and frequent. While certain infectious risks at the human-animal interface are well known—such as toxoplasmosis, transmitted by cats—the threat of antimicrobial resistance rarely comes to mind. And yet…  

Antimicrobial Resistance: A Threat to Public Health

Antimicrobial resistance, or bacterial resistance to antibiotics, is now identified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as one of the major threats to human health. In France alone, approximately 4,500 people die each year from infections caused by multidrug-resistant bacteria—that is, resistant bacteria that are resistant to many antibiotics. Worldwide, nearly 1.3 million people died in 2019 from such infections—more than the number of deaths caused by malaria or HIV. The phenomenon of antimicrobial resistance undermines the effectiveness of antibiotic treatments, harming both human and animal health. In practical terms, this means that there is a high likelihood of dying from a severe infection caused by bacteria that cannot be treated with available antibiotics. Generally speaking, treatment often takes longer when a bacterial infection has antibiotic resistance, and hospitalization is sometimes required. Furthermore, antimicrobial resistance increases the risk of complications from the infection, as the infection then becomes more difficult—or even impossible—to treat.

What is the connection between pets and antimicrobial resistance?

A single dose of antibiotics is enough to select for resistant bacteria in our microbiota—in the gut microbiota, for example. Once we become “carriers” of such a resistant strain, we may not even realize it: we don’t always get sick; the bacteria often simply live alongside the others in our bodies. The problem is that bacteria—whether resistant or sensitive to antibiotics—circulate… They are constantly transmitted between humans, animals (pets or livestock), and the environment (soil, water, various surfaces…). You can therefore share resistant bacteria with your pet, and your pet can do the same with you. For example, some pig farmers have been found to carry multidrug-resistant staphylococci, which were transmitted to them through contact with their animals. Conversely, multidrug-resistant human staphylococci have been transmitted by animal owners to their dogs. The fact that antimicrobial resistance can be transmitted between animals and humans has been confirmed by a recent report from European agencies. In both humans and animals, antibiotics may be taken at home or during a hospital stay. Resistant bacteria can then spread among household members (humans or animals), within a hospital or veterinary clinic, or through various contacts after discharge from the hospital.  

Who consumes more antibiotics? Humans or animals?

In France, contrary to common misconceptions that still persist, animals—whether pets or livestock—consume fewer antibiotics than humans. This has not always been the case: this situation is the result of significant efforts made over the past 20 years in veterinary medicine, particularly as part of the Ecoantibio 1 and 2 ministerial programs and EU regulations. Human antibiotic consumption has also declined in France, though to a lesser extent than in animals. It should be noted, however, that the sharp decline in antibiotic use in veterinary medicine in France has primarily involved livestock. For pets, usage has remained generally constant. This is why the ministerial program Ecoantibio 3, launched in November 2023, calls for a special focus on dogs, cats, and horses. Globally, however, the situation is somewhat different. While the use of antibiotics in animals has certainly shown an overall downward trend in recent years, many countries still use antibiotics as growth promoters in livestock farming. Since 2006, this practice has been banned in EU countries, which extended this ban through Regulation 2019/6, which took effect on January 28, 2022; Article 118 of this regulation requires that products imported into the EU come from animals that have not been treated with antibiotics used as growth promoters.  

Practical Tips for Limiting the Risk of Spread

A few simple steps, easily incorporated into daily life, can help reduce the risk of infection and antimicrobial resistance in both humans and animals:

• Make sure your vaccinations and those of your pet are up to date;
• Avoid bites and scratches as much as possible, as they can cause infections (which may require antibiotics to treat); If you are bitten or scratched by your pet, the correct course of action is to immediately perform disinfection of the wound, then seek advice from a healthcare professional;
• Make sure to practice good hand hygiene (washing or rubbing) after touching an animal, pet food, or animal waste. This is also to reduce the risk of infection and limit the spread of bacteria;
• Keep in mind that any use of antibiotics, in humans as well as in animals, carries the risk of selecting for and then transmitting resistant bacteria to those around you; It is therefore particularly important to be vigilant about hand hygiene during and after a course of antibiotics;
• Return any leftover antibiotics to the veterinary pharmacy or veterinarian to avoid contaminating the environment;
• Do not self-medicate or share your antibiotics with family members or your pet (and vice versa), as antibiotic treatment is tailored to a specific case.

All these simple habits, when practiced daily, can help everyone contribute to preserving the effectiveness of antibiotics—for themselves, their loved ones, and their pets—in France and elsewhere, now and for future generations. Achieving this goal is a real societal, political, and public health challenge—one that should concern us all. Indeed, whether human or animal, we may all, at some point in our lives, need to take antibiotics to treat a bacterial infection that—if not treated properly—could have serious consequences for our health.

Céline Pulcini , Professor of Medicine and Infectious Disease Specialist, University of Lorraine , and Jean-Yves Madec , Scientific Director for Antimicrobial Resistance at ANSES, the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES) This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.