Antibacterial therapeutics for the treatment of chytrid infection in amphibians: Columbus’s egg?

BMC Veterinary Research

Research Article

Freddy Haesebrouck¹  An Martel¹  Griet Vercauteren¹  Frank Pasmans¹  Mariska Muijsers¹  Pascale Van Rooij¹  Richard Ducatelle¹  Patrick De Backer²  Kris Baert³  Francis Vercammen⁴ 

[1] Department of Pathology, Bacteriology and Avian Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, Salisburylaan 133, B-9820, Merelbeke, Belgium;Department of Pharmacology, Pharmacy and Toxicology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, Salisburylaan 133, B-9820, Merelbeke, Belgium;Medicem NV, Industriepark West 68, B-9100, Sint Niklaas, Belgium;Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp, Centre for Research and Conservation, Koningin Astridplein 26, B-2018, Antwerpen, Belgium;

关键词: Minimum Inhibitory Concentration;    Itraconazole;    Voriconazole;    Trimethoprim;    Minimum Inhibitory Concentration;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1746-6148-8-175

 received in 2012-03-19, accepted in 2012-08-23,  发布年份 2012

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThe establishment of safe and effective protocols to treat chytridiomycosis in amphibians is urgently required. In this study, the usefulness of antibacterial agents to clear chytridiomycosis from infected amphibians was evaluated.ResultsFlorfenicol, sulfamethoxazole, sulfadiazine and the combination of trimethoprim and sulfonamides were active in vitro against cultures of five Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis strains containing sporangia and zoospores, with minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) of 0.5-1.0 μg/ml for florfenicol and 8.0 μg/ml for the sulfonamides. Trimethoprim was not capable of inhibiting growth but, combined with sulfonamides, reduced the time to visible growth inhibition by the sulfonamides. Growth inhibition of B. dendrobatidis was not observed after exposure to clindamycin, doxycycline, enrofloxacin, paromomycin, polymyxin E and tylosin. Cultures of sporangia and zoospores of B. dendrobatidis strains JEL423 and IA042 were killed completely after 14 days of exposure to 100 μg/ml florfenicol or 16 μg/ml trimethoprim combined with 80 μg/ml sulfadiazine. These concentrations were, however, not capable of efficiently killing zoospores within 4 days after exposure as assessed using flow cytometry. Florfenicol concentrations remained stable in a bathing solution during a ten day period. Exposure of Discoglossus scovazzi tadpoles for ten days to 100 μg/ml but not to 10 μg florfenicol /ml water resulted in toxicity. In an in vivo trial, post metamorphic Alytes muletensis, experimentally inoculated with B. dendrobatidis, were treated topically with a solution containing 10 μg/ml of florfenicol during 14 days. Although a significant reduction of the B. dendrobatidis load was obtained, none of the treated animals cleared the infection.ConclusionsWe thus conclude that, despite marked anti B. dendrobatidis activity in vitro, the florfenicol treatment used is not capable of eliminating B. dendrobatidis infections from amphibians.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Muijsers et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2012. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.