Clinical assessment of wounds and antimicrobial susceptibility profiles of aerobic bacterial isolates in dogs at two surgeries in Harare

A study was conducted at two veterinary surgeries to investigate the common aerobic bacteria associated with dog bite wounds in dogs, and to determine their antimicrobial susceptibilities. From each wound, two swabs were collected for bacterial culture and cytology. A total of 50 wounds from 50 dogs were examined, with 78% (39/50) lacerations classified as; contaminated (52%) and infected (26%) while 22% (11/50) were puncture wounds classified as; contaminated (18%) and infected (4%). All the wounds yielded 91 different isolates with 61.5% and 38.5% Gram-positive and Gram negative bacteria, respectively. Staphylococcus aureus (22.0%), Staphylococcus pseuintermedius (17.6%), Streptococcus spp. (12.1%) and Klebsiella spp. 9.9% were predominant. None of the isolates were resistant to ciprofloxacin, with low resistance to gentamicin, kanamycin and amikacin. For S. aureus and S. pseudintermedius, multiple drug resistance to ampicillin/cloxacillin and cotrimoxazole was dominant. Thus, it is prudent to carry out antimicrobial susceptibility testing prior to antimicrobial treatment.Keywords: Dog bite wounds, aerobic bacteria, antimicrobial susceptibility, multi-drug resistanc