Stephen A Kania, PhD, University of Tennessee [$2500]
Project Summary from AKCCHF.org website:
“The emergence of methicillin-resistant staphylococci has made the treatment of canine skin infections with Staphylococcus pseudintermedius a difficult challenge. In fact some of these bacteria are resistant to all available antibiotics. There are many unanswered questions regarding antibiotic resistance and the underlying causes of skin infections. In addition, new strategies are needed to prevent and/or treat infections from these organisms such as vaccines or bacteriophage therapy.
The foundation of these approaches rests on identification of the major strains of the bacterial species. To attain this goal we developed a new method of genetic tying and hundreds of bacterial isolates were obtained from all regions of the United States. Each sample was studied with regard to spectrum of antibiotic resistance and genetic background and we have made significant progress toward identifying the entire genome of the major strains of the bacterium. Using the latest technology, genomes have been assembled from two isolates representing the major clonal populations of S.pseudintermedius. We have nearly completed assembling the genomes of three additional genomes and plan to assemble a total of seven genomes.
This project has provided important new information by identifying all of the thousands of genes contained within two isolates representing the most frequently occurring type of the bacterium. This information is being used to determine the role of the gene products in infection, to identify new targets for vaccine development, and to better understand the spread of antibiotic resistance between bacteria.”
Publication:
Solyman SM, Black CC, Duim B, Perreten V, van Duijkeren E, Wagenaar JA, Eberlein LC, Sadeghi LN, Videla R, Bemis DA, and Kania SA. Multilocus Sequence Typing (MLST) for Characterization of Staphylococcus pseudintermedius. 2013. J. Clin. Microbiol. 51:306-310.