Antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of Arcobacter butzleri and Arcobacter cryaerophilus strains isolated from humans and broilers

The MICs of five antimicrobial agents were determined by the agar dilution method for 98 Arcobacter butzleri and 28 Arcobacter cryaerophilus strains from humans, and poultry. With gentamicin, a MIC of 16 mug/ml was recorded for one A. butzleri strain isolated from poultry, whereas for the other strains MICs ranged from 0.25 to 4 mug/ml. With ciprofloxacin, a bimodal distribution of susceptibility levels was seen for human A. butzleri isolates (0.015-0.03 versus 0.12-0.25), whereas MICs for 65 of the 68 A. butzleri poultry strains ranged from 0.12 to 0.5 mug/ml and three strains from three different broilers were resistant with a MIC of 16 mug/ml. One A. cryaerophilus strain from poultry was resistant to erythromycin at a MIC of 128 mug/ml, whereas MICs for the other Arcobacter strains ranged from 2 to 32 mug/ml. No difference in susceptibility or resistance among the human and poultry strains tested was observed with doxycycline and nalidixic acid. The presence of acquired resistance to erythromycin and ciprofloxacin among poultry isolates is a matter of concern, because the two antimicrobials are generally prescribed as first-line drugs for the treatment of infections with Campylobacteraceae in humans.