HAVING a snooze with your furry friend curled up next to you can be many pet owners’ favourite thing.
But experts have warned you should avoid regular snuggles with your dog, as it could put you at risk of an “untreatable superbug”.
Dogs can harbour a drug resistant gene in their stomachs, which can be passed on to their owners
It all comes down down to something called a mcr-1 gene, which dogs can harbour in their gut.
It’s believed to be transmitted from pets to their owners through microscopic poo particles, made easier if your furry friend shares your bed.
Mcr-1 has built up a resistance to certain life-saving drugs such as colistin, an old antibiotic that is the last-resort drug for some multidrug-resistant infections, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
A team of experts from the University of Lisbon studied 80 households with pets over a period of two years, starting in February 2020, and gathered faecal samples from the 126 people and 102 cats and dogs in them.
It was found that eight of the dogs and four humans were hosting bacteria including mcr-1, according to the Mirror.
In two of the households in question where dogs had tissue infections, the gene was found in both the dog and the owner, suggesting it had been passed on to them.
But three of the dogs in which mcr-1 was spotted appeared to be healthy.
The findings were presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Conference.
Experts told attendees people in southern European countries that use colistin will be less likely to contract the mcr-1 gene.
Dr Juliana Menezes, who led the research, said: “Colistin is used when all other antibiotics have failed, it is a crucial treatment of last resort.
“If bacteria resistant to all drugs acquire this resistance gene, they would become untreatable, and that’s a scenario we must avoid at all costs.
“We know that the overuse of antibiotics drives resistance and it is vital that they are used responsibly, not just in medicine but also in veterinary medicine and in farming.”
Sleep experts have previously warned pet owners that often snooze with their cats or dogs, as their fur could harbour bugs or germs that could be passed on to them as they sleep.
You might also be at risk of mites or flees if your furry friend frequently climbs into bed with you.