title: In vitro susceptibility of rabbit strains of Clostridium spiroforme to antimicrobial agents.
abstract: Using an agar dilution method we measured the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 12 antimicrobial agents against 11 strains of iota-toxigenic strains of Clostridium spiroforme. Each strain was isolated from a separate outbreak of toxic diarrhoea of rabbits. Vancomycin and bacitracin, both agents used to treat intestinal clostridioses of humans and other animals, had a relatively high MIC (8 micrograms/ml or more). Metronidazole was uniformly active against C. spiroforme. With MIC of 8 micrograms/ml or more, both lincomycin (11 strains) and erythromycin (9 strains) were relatively inactive against C. spiroforme, conversely, penicillin G was active (MIC for 8 strains was 0.5 micrograms/ml or less). Exposure to any one of these drugs has been implicated as a predisposing factor for C. spiroforme mediated diarrhoea of rabbits. The greatest variation in MIC was seen for erythromycin (8-fold), penicillin G (8-fold) and tetracycline (16-fold).
authors.affiliation: Department of Anaerobic Microbiology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg 24061-0308.
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Carman
authors.forename: T D
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Wilkins
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D003013:Clostridium / Q000187:drug effects*; D003015:Clostridium Infections / Q000382:microbiology / Q000662:veterinary; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000382:microbiology / Q000662:veterinary; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests; D011817:Rabbits
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents