1. Hirakawa, Y., Sasaki, I., Kawamoto E., Ishikawa H.,
Matsumoto T., Aoyama N., Kawasumi K., Amao H.
Written by Pillerin Paukson

2. The aim of study
 Investigate the occurance of P. aeruginosa infection
among chinchillas bred as pets and laboratory
animals.
 Characterise the isolates by testing for antibiotic
susceptibility and by gene analysis.

3. Outline
 Introduction
 Methods
 Results
 Conclusion

4. Chinchillas
 Popular pets
 Often used as laboratory animals

5. Bacterium Pseudomonas
aeruginosa
 Cause of serious diseases in humans and animals
 Has acquired resistance to many therapeutic
antibiotics
 Serious problem in laboratories and hospitals

6.  67 chinchillas
- 22 bred as pets
- 44 bred as laboratory
animals
 41,8 % found to be
carriers of P. aeruginosa

7. Methods
• Slide
agglutination
• Pulsed-field gel
electrophoresis
• Antibiotic
susceptibility test

8. Results
 Antibiotic susceptibility test:
 40,9% of the isolates were susceptible to gentamicin
 77,3 % to ciproflaxin
 77,3% to imipenem
 72,7% to ceftazisime

9. Conclusion
 P. aeruginosa is wide-spread in chinchillas, including
strains with reduced susceptibility to the antibiotics.
 To help prevent the propagation of this pathogen and
reduce the risk of the infection transmission from
chinchillas to humans the periodic monitoring should
be peformed.

10. References
 Hirakawa et al.: Prevalence and analysis of
Pseudomonas aeruginosa in chinchillas. BMC
Veterinary Research 2010 6:52.

11. Thank you for your attention!