International Spread of Multidrug-Resistant <i>Rhodococcus equi</i>
Jorge Val‐Calvo, Jane Darcy, J. F. Gibbons, Alan Creighton, Claire Egan, Thomas Buckley, Achim Schmalenberger, Ursula Fogarty, Mariela Scortti, José A. Vázquez‐Boland
Abstract
R hodococcus equi is a soilborne aerobic actinomy- cete bacterium that infects animals and humans. Human infections are opportunistic, zoonotic in origin, and considered to be linked to exposure to farm environments (1-3). Although clinical R. equi infections are relatively rare in most animal species, foals are commonly affected, and incidence is often high in horse farms in equine breeding countries (4). Long courses of rifampin and a macrolide is the mainstay therapy for foal rhodococcosis. This treatment has been systematically used since the 1980s and no significant resistance was detected until the early 2000s, after mass prophylactic application at R. equiendemic farms in the United States (5,