{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,21]],"date-time":"2026-07-21T15:01:48Z","timestamp":1784646108175,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":30,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,21]],"date-time":"2026-07-21T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1784592000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Vet. Sci."],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      Companion animal shelters represent underexplored settings for One Health antimicrobial resistance (AMR) surveillance. This study investigated the recovery, antimicrobial resistance, and genomic features of\n                      <jats:italic>Enterococcus<\/jats:italic>\n                      spp. from shelter dogs and cats in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      Rectal swabs were collected from 230 shelter animals, including 129 dogs and 101 cats, across five shelters in four UAE emirates\/cities.\n                      <jats:italic>Enterococcus<\/jats:italic>\n                      isolates were recovered using selective culture and identified by MALDI-TOF MS. Confirmed\n                      <jats:italic>Enterococcus faecalis<\/jats:italic>\n                      and\n                      <jats:italic>Enterococcus faecium<\/jats:italic>\n                      isolates underwent antimicrobial susceptibility testing using Vitek-2. Multidrug-resistant (MDR) and linezolid-resistant isolates were subjected to whole-genome sequencing (WGS) for multilocus sequence typing, resistome analysis, single-nucleotide polymorphism-based phylogeny, phenotype\u2013genotype concordance assessment, and virulence-associated gene profiling.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      <jats:italic>Enterococcus<\/jats:italic>\n                      spp. were recovered from 122\/230 animals (53.0%; 95% confidence interval: 46.6\u201359.4), with higher recovery in dogs (71.3% (92\/129)) than cats (29.7% (30\/101)). Overall,\n                      <jats:italic>E. faecalis<\/jats:italic>\n                      accounted for 63\/122 isolates (51.6%) and\n                      <jats:italic>E. faecium<\/jats:italic>\n                      for 59\/122 isolates (48.4%). Phenotypic resistance was most frequent for tetracycline (51.6%), erythromycin (30.3%), ciprofloxacin (27.2%), high-level streptomycin (20.5%), and high-level gentamicin (9.8%). All isolates were susceptible to ampicillin, vancomycin, teicoplanin, and tigecycline. MDR was detected in 25\/122 isolates (20.5%) and was more frequent among\n                      <jats:italic>E. faecalis<\/jats:italic>\n                      than\n                      <jats:italic>E. faecium<\/jats:italic>\n                      . Linezolid resistance was detected in two isolates recovered from two dogs, one male and one female, housed in the same shelter. WGS of 25 MDR or linezolid-resistant isolates revealed diverse sequence types, including dominant\n                      <jats:italic>E. faecalis<\/jats:italic>\n                      ST16, shelter-associated SNP clusters, and multiple resistance determinants, including\n                      <jats:italic>erm(B), tet(L), tet(M)<\/jats:italic>\n                      , aminoglycoside resistance genes, quinolone resistance-associated mutations, and plasmid-predicted\n                      <jats:italic>optrA<\/jats:italic>\n                      in three\n                      <jats:italic>E. faecalis<\/jats:italic>\n                      isolates. Virulence-associated genes were more prominent in\n                      <jats:italic>E. faecalis<\/jats:italic>\n                      , particularly the endocarditis- and biofilm-associated pilus genes involved in adhesion and biofilm formation, together with a putative exoenzyme-associated factor potentially contributing to host interaction and bacterial fitness.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusions<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      Shelter dogs and cats in the UAE carried\n                      <jats:italic>E. faecalis<\/jats:italic>\n                      and\n                      <jats:italic>E. faecium<\/jats:italic>\n                      with phenotypic AMR, MDR profiles, and diverse genomic resistance determinants. The detection of linezolid resistance and plasmid-predicted\n                      <jats:italic>optrA<\/jats:italic>\n                      supports inclusion of shelter companion animals in regional One Health AMR surveillance.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fvets.2026.1906971","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,21]],"date-time":"2026-07-21T14:09:59Z","timestamp":1784642999000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Shelter dogs and cats as a one health interface for phenotypic and genomic surveillance of antimicrobial-resistant Enterococcus Spp. in the United Arab Emirates"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"13","author":[{"given":"Ihab","family":"Habib","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Veterinary Public Health Research Laboratory, Department of Veterinary Medicine, College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, United Arab 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Lakshmi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Veterinary Public Health Research Laboratory, Department of Veterinary Medicine, College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, United Arab Emirates University","place":["Al Ain, United Arab Emirates"]},{"name":"ASPIRE Research Institute for Food Security in the Drylands (ARIFSID), United Arab Emirates University","place":["Al Ain, United Arab Emirates"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Asha","family":"Antony","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Veterinary Public Health Research Laboratory, Department of Veterinary Medicine, College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, United Arab Emirates University","place":["Al Ain, United Arab Emirates"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mohammed","family":"Elbediwi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"University Institute for Medical Microbiology and Virology, Carl von Ossietzky University 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