PLoS ONE (Jan 2015)

Reduced Susceptibility to Rifampicin and Resistance to Multiple Antimicrobial Agents among Brucella abortus Isolates from Cattle in Brazil.

  • Rebeca Barbosa Pauletti,
  • Ana Paula Reinato Stynen,
  • Juliana Pinto da Silva Mol,
  • Elaine Maria Seles Dorneles,
  • Telma Maria Alves,
  • Monalisa de Sousa Moura Souto,
  • Silvia Minharro,
  • Marcos Bryan Heinemann,
  • Andrey Pereira Lage

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0132532
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10, no. 7
p. e0132532

Abstract

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This study aimed to determine the susceptibility profile of Brazilian Brucella abortus isolates from cattle to eight antimicrobial agents that are recommended for the treatment of human brucellosis and to correlate the susceptibility patterns with origin, biotype and MLVA16-genotype of the strains. Screening of 147 B. abortus strains showed 100% sensitivity to doxycycline and ofloxacin, one (0.68%) strain resistant to ciprofloxacin, two strains (1.36%) resistant to streptomycin, two strains (1.36%) resistant to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole and five strains (3.40%) resistant to gentamicin. For rifampicin, three strains (2.04%) were resistant and 54 strains (36.73%) showed reduced sensitivity. Two strains were considered multidrug resistant. In conclusion, the majority of B. abortus strains isolated from cattle in Brazil were sensitive to the antimicrobials commonly used for the treatment of human brucellosis; however, a considerable proportion of strains showed reduced susceptibility to rifampicin and two strains were considered multidrug resistant. Moreover, there was no correlation among the drug susceptibility pattern, origin, biotype and MLVA16-genotypes of these strains.