Penicillin

About: Penicillin is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 17916 publications have been published within this topic receiving 368480 citations. The topic is also known as: penicillin antibiotic & PCN.

Clinical and bacteriological response to treatment of clinical mastitis with one of three intramammary antibiotics.

Abstract: AIM: To compare the proportions of clinical and bacteriological cure of glands of dairy cows diagnosed with clinical mastitis, following treatment with one of three different intramammary antibiotic preparations. METHODS: Cows from dairy cow herds (n=28) across New Zealand which were diagnosed with clinical mastitis in one or more glands at any stage of lactation were randomly assigned at the cow level within sequentially presented groups of three animals to be treated with one of three intramammary antibiotics. The treatments were 1 g procaine penicillin, 0.25 g cefuroxime, and a combination of 1 g procaine penicillin and 0.5 g dihydrostreptomycin (DHS). All treatments were infused on three occasions at 12-hourly intervals. Duplicate milk samples were collected for bacteriology before initial treatment, and 21–42 days later. Logistic regression or generalised linear mixed models were used to analyse the proportion of cows or quarters retreated for mastitis within 30 days of initial treatment (‘e...

Susceptibility of Anaerobic Bacteria to Carbenicillin, Cefoxitin, and Related Drugs

Abstract: The agar dilution technique was used for determination of the bacteriostatic activity of carbenicillin, penicillin G, cefazolin, cephaloridine, cefoxitin, and cephalothin against a variety of anaerobic bacteria. Carbenicillin showed a high level of activity at a concentration of 100 /zg/ml. Cefoxitin, a/3-lactamase-resistant drug, was highly active against B. fragilis and most other anaerobes at a concentration of < 32 /g/ml; the exceptions were one strain of Bacteroides species and 13 of 28 strains of Clostridium species. The other cephalosporins were less active against B. fragilis but exhibited good activity against most of the other strains tested. Bactericidal concentrations of cefoxitin and cephalothin were determined for 51 selected strains by the broth dilution technique, and the activities of these drugs were compared with those of two other drugs (clindamycin and metronidazole) known to be very active against anaerobes. Metronidazole was the most consistently bactericidal of the four drugs tested for this activity.

Antimicrobial resistance of bacteria isolated from slaughtered and retail chickens in South Africa

Abstract: Animal feed is increasingly being supplemented with antibiotics to decrease the risk of epidemics in animal husbandry. This practice could lead to the selection for antibiotic resistant micro-organisms. The aim of this study was to determine the level of antibiotic resistant bacteria present on retail and abattoir chicken. Staphylococci, Enterobacteriaceae, Salmonella and isolates from total aerobic plate count were tested for resistance to vancomycin, streptomycin, methicillin, tetracycline and gentamicin using the disc diffusion susceptibility test; resistance to penicillin was determined using oxacillin. Results from the antibiotic code profile indicated that many of the bacterial strains were displaying multiple antibiotic resistance (MAR). A larger proportion of resistance to most antibiotics, except for vancomycin, was displayed by the abattoir samples, therefore suggesting that the incidence of MAR pathogenic bacteria was also higher in the abattoir samples. This resistance spectrum of abattoir samples is a result of farmers adding low doses of antibiotics to livestock feed to improve feeding efficiency so that the animals need less food to reach marketable weight. The lower incidence of MAR pathogenic bacteria in the retail samples is a result of resistance genes being lost due to lack of selective pressure, or to the fact that the resistant flora are being replaced by more sensitive flora during processing. The use of subtherapeutic levels of antibiotics for prophylaxis and as growth promoters remains a concern as the laws of evolution dictate that microbes will eventually develop resistance to practically any antibiotic. Selective pressure exerted by widespread antimicrobial use is therefore the driving force in the development of antibiotic resistance. This study indicated that a large proportion of the bacterial flora on fresh chicken is resistant to a variety of antibiotics, and that resultant food-related infections will be more difficult to treat.

Transition from resistance to hypersusceptibility to beta-lactam antibiotics associated with loss of a low-affinity penicillin-binding protein in a Streptococcus faecium mutant highly resistant to penicillin.

Abstract: Penicillin-binding protein (PBP) 5 of Streptococcus faecium has been shown to have a very low affinity for penicillin, and this PBP was suggested to be responsible for both the natural low susceptibility and high resistance to the antibiotic in this species (R. Fontana, R. Cerini, P. Longoni, A. Grossato, and P. Canepari, J. Bacteriol. 155:1343-1350, 1983). In this study, an S. faecium mutant (Rev 14) hypersusceptible to penicillin was derived from the highly resistant S. faecium R40 treated with novobiocin, and its properties were compared with those of the parent and S. faecium PS, a relatively susceptible strain from which R40 was isolated. The hypersusceptible strain did not synthesize PBP 5, but it did resemble the parent in cell morphology, growth rate, and autolytic activity. In addition, it was highly susceptible to other beta-lactams but remained as susceptible as R40 and PS to antibiotics of a different mechanisms of action. The affinity of individual PBPs for the beta-lactams tested was the same in all the strains. This finding suggested that Rev 14 hypersusceptibility was due to the lack of PBP 5 and strongly supported the role of this protein in the mechanism of both natural low susceptibility and high-level resistance to beta-lactams in S. faecium.