Pinar Etiz, Filiz Kibar, Yagmur Ekenoglu, Akgun Yaman
Background: Brucellosis is a worldwide zoonotic disease that remains an important public health problem especially in rural Turkey. The aim of this study is to identify Brucella species and investigate the in-vitro susceptibilities of clinical isolates against various antibiotics.
Methods: The study included 50 Brucella isolates obtained from clinical samples from the Cukurova University Balcali Hospital between 2010-2012. The isolates were identified by the Vitek 2 automated system. In vitro activities of doxycycline, streptomycin, rifampicin, ciprofloxacin, tigecycline, gentamycin, trimethoprimsulfamethoxsazole, erythromycin, ampicillin, amoxicillin/clavulonic acid were evaluated against 50 Brucella isolates by the E-Test method.
Findings: All isolates were identified as Brucella melitensis. All isolates were sensitive (100%) to doxycycline, streptomycin, gentamycin, trimethoprimsulfamethoxsazole, ciprofloxacin, ampicillin and amoxicillin/clavulonic. All 11 strains yielded intermediate sensitivity (22%) to rifampicin and one strain was resistant (%2); whereas, the others were all sensitive. Trimethoprim-sulfamethoxsazole had the lowest minimal inhibitor concentration (MIC50; 0.023 ug/ml and MIC90; 0.064 ug/ml) and rifampicin had the highest MIC values (MIC50; 1 ug/ml and MIC90; 1.5 ug/ml) against all B. melitensis isolates.
Conclusions: Based on these findings, the present study showed that in-vitro trimethoprim-sulfamethoxsazole was the most effective antibiotic against B.melitensis. However, enough care should be taken for the use of rifampicin which is frequently used for the treatment of brucellosis, an endemic disease in our country. Establishment of a standardized antibiotic susceptibility method for Brucella spp would be useful for the determination of resistance in these bacteria and an appropriate agent should be used for the treatment.
