Survey of Bacteroides fragilis group susceptibility patterns in Canada

The in vitro activities of penicillin, clindamycin, chloramphenicol, metronidazole, piperacillin, piperacillin-tazobactam, ticarcillin, ticarcillin-clavulanate, ampicillin-sulbactam, cefoxitin, ceftizoxime, cefotetan, moxalactam, and imipenem against 348 Bacteroides fragilis group isolates collected from six Canadian cities during 1990 were determined by the National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards (NCCLS) agar dilution technique. All isolates were susceptible to chloramphenicol, metronidazole, piperacillin-tazobactam, and imipenem. For the other antibiotics tested, the following resistance rates were observed: penicillin, 97%; clindamycin, 9%; piperacillin, 19%; ticarcillin, 31%; ticarcillin-clavulanate, 0.28%; ampicillin-sulbactam, 0.85%; cefoxitin, 26%; ceftizoxime, 15%; cefotetan, 53%; and moxalactam, 17%. Susceptibility profiles to beta-lactam antibiotics varied among the different species tested: B. fragilis and Bacteroides vulgatus demonstrated lower resistance rates than Bacteroides distasonis and indole-positive Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron and Bacteroides ovatus. Ceftizoxime results should be interpreted cautiously, because the MICs obtained with the recommended NCCLS control strain were lower than expected.