ANTIMICROBIAL SUSCEPTIBILITIES OF CAMPYLOBACTER-JEJUNI AND COIL BY USING E-TEST IN TAIWAN

To report the in vitro antibiotic susceptibility of Campylobacter spec ies, we determined the MICs of 6 antibiotics by E-test for 93 human cl inical strains and 35 chicken strains. The 6 antimicrobial agents test ed were gentamicin, erythromycin, clindamycin, tetracycline, ciproflox acin, and nalidixic acid. Isolates from humans were significantly more susceptible than chicken strains to erythromycin, clindamycin and cip rofloxacin. Nearly all of the human and chicken strains were susceptib le to gentamicin. Among human isolates of C, jejuni, cross-resistance between nalidixic acid and ciprofloxacin was found in 66% of the strai ns, but none of the nalidixic acid-susceptible strains was resistant t o ciprofloxacin. The higher prevalence of ciprofloxacin resistance in this area may be attributable to the large amount use of quinolones in poultry. Because of the high resistance rates of chicken isolates to the commonly used antimicrobial agents, it is necessary to create inno vative methods to limit the inappropriate use of antibiotics in poultr y in order to prevent the spread of the drug-resistant strains to huma ns.