Studies on time-kill kinetics of different classes of antibiotics against veterinary pathogenic bacteria including Pasteurella, Actinobacillus and Escherichia coli

A systematic analysis of the bacteriostatic/bactericidal effect of several antibiotics used in veterinary medicine was carried out by time-kill kinetic analysis using P. haemolytica, P. multocida, A. pleuropneumoniae, and E. coli. The antibiotics tested were enrofloxacin, danofloxacin, erythromycin, tilmicosin, penicillin G, ceftiofur and tetracycline. Unexpectedly, the antibiotics well characterized as bacteriostatic agents against human pathogens such as tetracycline and macrolides, showed bactericidal activity against P. haemolytica and A. pleuropneumoniae. In contrast, tetracycline and erythromycin were bacteriostatic and tilmicosin was bactericidal against P. multocida. In addition, P. multocida was killed by fluoroquinolones at a slower rate than the other bacteria. Spectrum analysis revealed that ceftiofur and tilmicosin were good substrates of the universal efflux pump, AcrA/B, but penicillin and tetracycline were not. The fluoroquinolones were modest substrates for AcrA/B.