%0 Journal Article
%T Limited transmission of carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae between animals and humans: a study in Qingdao.
%A Bai R
%A Wang X
%A Zou Z
%A Zhou W
%A Tan C
%A Cao Y
%A Fu B
%A Zhai W
%A Hu F
%A Wang Y
%A Wu C
%A Zhu Y
%A Sun C
%J Emerg Microbes Infect
%V 13
%N 1
%D 2024 Dec 31
%M 39082402
%F 19.568
%R 10.1080/22221751.2024.2387446
%X ABSTRACTDespite no carbapenem use in food animals, carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae (CRKP) perseveres within food animals, rising significant concerns regarding public health risks originating from these non-clinical reservoirs. To investigate the potential link between CRKP in food animals and its infections in humans, we conducted a cross-sectional study encompassing human clinical, meat products, and farm animals, in Qingdao city, Shandong province, China. We observed a relatively higher presence of CRKP among hospital inpatients (7.3%) compared to that in the meat products (2.7%) and farm animals (pig, 4.6%; chicken, 0.63%). Multilocus sequence typing and core-genome phylogenetic analyses confirm there is no evidence of farm animals and meat products in the clinical acquisition of K. pneumoniae isolates and carbapenem-resistant genes. However, potential transmission of K. pneumoniae of ST659 and IncX3 plasmid harbouring blaNDM-5 gene from pigs to pork and farm workers was observed. Our findings suggest a limited role of farm animals and meat products in the human clinical acquisition of K. pneumoniae, and the transmission of K. pneumoniae is more common within settings, than between them.