Vetnews | Desember 2025 12 « BACK TO CONTENTS Calibration and quality control of the VITEK® 2 Compact system were performed daily according to the manufacturer’s instructions, using the quality control strain Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 29213. Interpretation of susceptibility results was carried out in accordance with the CLSI VET01, Fifth Edition (2018) standard, which is specifically designed for bacterial isolates from animals [41]. 4.5 Ethical Approval Ethical approval for this study was granted by the Bioethics Commission of the University of Life Sciences “King Mihai I” in Timisoara (Approval No. 592, dated 9 September 2025). The research was conducted without involving experimental procedures on live animals and complied with all relevant ethical standards for animal research. Statistical analyses were conducted using Chi-square or Fisher’s exact tests for proportions, with significance set at p < 0.05; false discovery rate (FDR) adjustment, risk difference (RD), and relative risk (RR) with 95% confidence intervals were reported. 5. Conclusions S. pseudintermedius was identified with a significant prevalence in both dogs with otitis externa (40%) and clinically healthy dogs (21.1%), highlighting its role as a relevant pathogen and a potential community reservoir. The antimicrobial resistance profile revealed a notably high resistance to tetracyclines in both groups, indicating a selective pressure associated with the frequent use of this antibiotic class. MRSP was detected at a low rate (1.2%) among dogs with otitis externa; however, MRSP strains exhibited multidrug resistance, including resistance to other critically important antimicrobial classes. This raises concerns regarding the therapeutic challenges posed by these infections and the potential for dissemination of resistant strains. Moreover, MDR isolates were present in both diseased and healthy dogs, suggesting that clinically healthy animals may act as important reservoirs of resistant bacteria with potential zoonotic implications. These findings underscore the urgent need for robust antimicrobial resistance surveillance strategies and the prudent use of antibiotics in veterinary medicine to limit the spread of resistant strains and safeguard both animal and public health. Author Contributions: Conceptualization, I.I., I.P. and V.I.; methodology, I.P. and T.B., validation, V.H., E.T. and K.I.; formal analysis, K.I., C.P. and J.D.; investigation, I.N., J.D. and I.I.; resources, V.H. and C.P.; data curation, A.-M.P. and P.N.; writing—original draft preparation, I.P., I.I., I.N. and V.I.; writing—review and editing, T.B., M.P. and C.P.; visualization, M.P., I.N. and A.G.; supervision, V.H., I.I. and I.N.; funding acquisition, V.H. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript. Abbreviations The following abbreviations are used in this manuscript: Disclaimer/Publisher’s Note: The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of MDPI and/or the editor(s). MDPI and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content. Copyright: © 2025 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/). v Leading Article S. pseudintermedius Staphylococcus pseudintermedius MRSP Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus pseudintermedius AMR Antimicrobial resistance SCCmec Staphylococcal chromosomal cassette mec MDR Multidrug resistance CLSI Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute MALDI-TOF MS Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionisation time-of-flight mass spectrometry BTS Bacterial Test Standard AST Antimicrobial susceptibility testing References available on request
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