Limited transmission of carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae between animals and humans: a study in Qingdao

Despite no carbapenem use in food animals, carbapenem-resistant (CRKP) perseveres within food animals, rising significant concerns regarding public health risks originating from these non-clinical reservoirs. To investigate the potential link between CRKP in food animals and its infections in humans, we conducted a cross-sectional study encompassing human clinical, meat products, and farm animals, in Qingdao city, Shandong province, China. We observed a relatively higher presence of CRKP among hospital inpatients (7.3%) compared to that in the meat products (2.7%) and farm animals (pig, 4.6%; chicken, 0.63%). Multilocus sequence typing and core-genome phylogenetic analyses confirm there is no evidence of farm animals and meat products in the clinical acquisition of isolates and carbapenem-resistant genes. However, potential transmission of of ST659 and IncX3 plasmid harbouring gene from pigs to pork and farm workers was observed. Our findings suggest a limited role of farm animals and meat products in the human clinical acquisition of , and the transmission of is more common within settings, than between them.