Comparative performances of Vitek-2, Disk Diffusion, and Broth Microdilution for antimicrobial susceptibility testing of canine Staphylococcus pseudintermedius

Staphylococcus pseudintermedius is the primary cause of canine cutaneous infections and sporadically isolated as pathogen from humans. Rapidly emerging antibiotic-resistant strains are creating serious health concern so that accurate and timely antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) is crucial for patient care. Here, the performances of AST methods Vitek-2, Disk Diffusion (DD) and Broth Microdilution (BMD) were compared for the determination of susceptibility of 79 S. pseudintermedius isolates from canine cutaneous infections and one from human pyoderma to oxacillin (OXA), amoxicillin/clavulanate (AMC), cephalothin (CEF), gentamicin (GEN), enrofloxacin (ENR), doxycycline (DOX), clindamycin (CLI), inducible clindamycin resistance (ICR), mupirocin (MUP) and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (SXT). Overall, the agreement of DD and Vitek-2 using veterinary AST-GP80 card with reference BMD was ≥ 90%, suggesting reliable AST performances. While DD generated mainly minor errors and one major error for OXA, Vitek-2 produced one very major error for GEN and it failed in identifying one ICR-positive isolate. Moreover, five bacteria were diagnosed as ICR-positive by Vitek-2 but they showed a non-induction resistance phenotype by manual methods. All S. pseudintermedius were interpreted as susceptible or intermediately susceptible to DOX using CLSI breakpoints for human staphylococci that match the DOX concentration range included in AST-GP80. However, this could lead to inappropriate antimicrobial prescription for S. pseudintermedius infections in companion animals. Considering the clinical and epidemiological importance of S. pseudintermedius, we encourage updating action by the system manufacturer to address AST for this bacterium.