Superbug from human eye drops outbreak spread to dogs

Two dogs treated at a veterinary hospital in New Jersey last year have tested positive for a rare, drug-resistant strain of bacteria linked to a fatal outbreak blamed on now-recalled eye drops that had been used in humans, a CDC investigator said Friday.

The animals were infected by a bacteria known as carbapenemase-producing carbapenem-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa, found in swabs of the lung and ear of two dogs from different owners at the hospital. 

Testing of the bacteria from the dogs found it to be "highly genetically related" to the germs behind an outbreak last year that ultimately sickened 81 human patients across 18 states. By the end of that outbreak, 14 patients lost their vision and four died.