title: Presence of fluoroquinolone-resistant coliforms in poultry litter.
abstract: Litter was collected from four turkey farms (eight houses) with a history of fluoroquinolone (FQ) treatment failure, 10 adult broiler breeder chicken farms (43 houses) with one having a history of FQ treatment, and 30 broiler chicken farms (110 houses) with 24 having a history of FQ treatment. In the turkey litter, the percentage of nalidixic acid-resistant (at 100 microg/ml) coliforms/total number of coliforms ranged from 0.6% to 61.9%. Two of the four farms had houses containing coliforms resistant to the two FQs, enrofloxacin (1 microg/ml) and sarafloxacin (1 microg/ml). There was also multiple resistance to other antimicrobials on all four turkey farms (ampicillin, tetracycline, chloramphenicol, kanamycin). The level of total coliforms from the adult broiler breeder litter was low, and there were no nalidixic acid-resistant isolates from any of the 10 farms. In the broiler chickens, 7 of 91 houses with a history of FQ usage contained coliforms resistant to nalidixic acid; however, 2 of the 19 houses on farms with no history of FQ usage had nalidixic acid-resistant coliforms. All of the broiler farms with nalidixic acid-resistant isolates were also resistant to the FQ sarafloxacin, whereas only 3 of the 24 treatment history farms and 1 of the no-treatment history farms exhibited enrofloxacin-resistant coliforms in the litter.
authors.affiliation: Department of Avian Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Georgia, Athens 30602-4875, USA.
authors.forename: C L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Hofacre
authors.forename: A R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: de Cotret
authors.forename: J J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Maurer
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Garritty
authors.forename: S G
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Thayer
mesh_terms: D000822:Animal Husbandry; D000818:Animals; D000890:Anti-Infective Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D002645:Chickens / Q000821:virology*; D004352:Drug Resistance, Microbial; D004755:Enterobacteriaceae / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D024841:Fluoroquinolones; D008372:Manure / Q000821:virology; D009268:Nalidixic Acid / Q000494:pharmacology; D014422:Turkeys / Q000821:virology*
chemical_list: D000890:Anti-Infective Agents; D024841:Fluoroquinolones; D008372:Manure; D009268:Nalidixic Acid